


A Summer To Remember

by Ellectrix



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Accidents, Beauty Pageants, Cliche, Cruise Ships, Epic Friendship, Fate & Destiny, Feel-good, Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humanstuck, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Laser Tag, M/M, Miscommunication, Multi, Mutual Pining, Overdosing, Partying, Past Child Abuse, Pining, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romance, Slow Burn, Summer Vacation, Swimming Pools, Tango, Teenage Drama, Texting, Touring, unrequited nepkat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-07-25 20:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 42
Words: 154,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellectrix/pseuds/Ellectrix
Summary: Sixteen teens on a two month luxury cruise for the summer provided for by their rich friends with four twenty four years old college students to chaperone them.Late night parties, pool misadventures, fun laser tagging action, bribing bartenders to give a seventeen year old alcohol, and travelling through tourist sights.A last hurrah to the last summer they can all be together before they become seniors and go on their separate paths after high school.What could go wrong?





	1. An Affluent Proposition

**Author's Note:**

> AHHHHHHHHH
> 
> Alright. Comment if you see any errors or if the text portion looks weird for you (i.e. it's covering up the rest of the text below it). I've tried to format it so it looks at least readable on a few different devices so I'm hoping this works out (first time coding anything in my life rip). I'm not sure how it'll look on some others so it'll really help out if you point out anything out of place.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the terrible quality of yet another homestuck multi-fic I'm starting :") Hopefully I can finish this one too. I've already got a few chapters pre-written after this one. I'll update whenever I can (sorry there's no schedule for updates :") it's gonna be pretty erratic so good luck).

“So, are you in, or are you in?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and covering the god-awful shirt depicting a pile of smuppet ass he was wearing.

You level him a deadpan stare mirroring his movements and crossing your own arms. “No.”

He raised an eyebrow, going past the ridiculous expensive aviators he wore around everywhere he went. Then he very casually shrugs his shoulders and pushed himself off the lockers. “Suit yourself. It’s your loss.” He tells you with the most disinterested voice he can. Which is basically his normal voice. Whatever. He disappears in the crowded hallway and you couldn’t care less.

Heaving a heavy sigh, you slammed your locker closed and locked that shit up before holding your books close to your chest and making your way to your next class.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

“Whaaaaaaaaaat? Karkat’s opting out?” The dark-haired glasses girl slammed her hands palm first on the table as she approached, effectively catching the whole table’s attention. The violet-eyed girl and a few more perked up at the news.

Kanaya frowned, putting down her fork of hash browns down after making it halfway to her mouth. She fixed you a questioning stare that you dutifully ignored, taking great fascination at the contents of your sandwich. “You’re not coming? How come?”

“Yeah, why’re you opting out, Karkat? It’s gonna sooooo much more fun with you there!” Egbert pipes up as well from the other side of the long rectangular table you all sat at. You can feel even more eyes on you as the chattered amped up after the news Harley delivered to your table. You can feel the groan bubble up from your throat before it’s even fully vocalized for all to hear.

Rose raised a quizzical eyebrow, eyeing her brother from the corner of her eyes. “It really is a once in a lifetime offer, Karkat. For once, I’d say it’s wise to join us and ‘party it up like the wild youth the media presents us to be’. We wouldn’t want you feeling left out since everyone else has agreed to come.”

Jade was nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah! Literally, everyone is gonna be there! And like, if you’re worried about the financial ramifications of joining, don’t! We’ve totally got everyone’s expenses already covered!”

“Damned rich people.” You mumbled under your breath, and Jade simply laughed. This makes you roll your eyes as well.

“C’mon Karkat. It’s just two months at sea. And it’s a fucking luxury cruise for Christ’s sake! And it’s free!” The blue-eyed boy also chipped in, trying to persuade you to join as well. You huff in frustration and glared at the two cousins who were grinning from ear to ear.

“Why the fuck does it even matter whether I join or not? I don’t give two shits whether it’s a luxury cruise or not, I am _not_ spending an extended period of time stuck on a boat with Strider. Especially if it’s his treat in the first fucking place.” You growled into your water bottle as you took a long sip. The green-eyed girl pouted.

“It’ not just Dave’s treat though! All four of us are pitching in to make this happen! It’s going to be our last year next year and we wanted to have an unforgettable summer with everyone while we still can! Who knows if everyone will be available next summer after graduation and everything! This could be the last we have at all being together!” Jade insisted, finally taking a seat next to Rose, her body turned in your direction.

You get out a guttural groan of frustration, keeping your glare on the shades-wearing douche directly across from you. “Just leave him alone, guys. If he says he doesn’t want to than he doesn’t. He can make shitty life decisions on his own.” Strider finally spoke up after a while, never lifting his eyes from the screen of his phone.

John plucked the phone from the blond’s hands and tossed it over to Jade behind Dave and Rose who sat in between the two of them. Dave levelled his best friend an unamused look while Rose simply lifted the corner of her lips into a small smile as she turned the page of her book. “Take this seriously, Dave! We talked about leaving nobody behind, so set your rivalry with him aside for a moment! We’re his friends too and we want him there even if you don’t!” Jade huffed, throwing the phone into her backpack. The fact that Dave just got his phone confiscated by his freshman year ex-girlfriend is a little funny to you that you can’t help but snicker a little at his expense.

He rolled his eyes, something you know despite his shades from the slight movement of his head. “Whatever. Show him the brochure or the website or something and let him decide whether he wants to join or not. He’s got a week to decide before finals start up.”

Kanaya touched your shoulder and you turn to give her your full attention while Harley continued to scold the blond with Rose quietly letting it happen. “Seriously Karkat, why don’t you want to join us? It’s really going to be a shame if you’re not there. The group’s not complete without you.”

You bite your lip, eyeing your sandwich as if it had the answer.

Okay, honestly, it might be a little petty of you to refuse an offer this fucking good just to spite Strider. Okay, no, this was completely one hundred percent petty and you honestly don’t have much of an excuse to refuse. Looking at your table of friends, you realize that what Jade did say was true. Your junior year is ending and the next comes senior and after all that, everybody will be busy with trying to forge their own path in life. You might never be together all in one place again like this. Was being petty fueled by spite for a blond bastard who’s tormented you the past three years really worth missing out on this?

Looking at Kanaya and her pleading eyes makes you rethink your decision. “I mean… I don’t even know if my dad would be down to let me go on a cruise ship all on my own for two whole months of summer vacation.” At this point, you’re just trying to make excuses to justify your pettiness. Fuck your stubbornness.

Kanaya gives you a deadpan look. “I’m sure we can talk him into it. You’re not going to be completely alone after all, we’re all going to be there. And from what I heard, some college siblings of Rose and the other three are gonna be there to chaperone us to an extent.” Yep. She just called you out on your bullshit. You let out a long puff of air.

Running your hand through your hair, you use your other hand to pick up your sandwich and finally take a bite into it to avoid having to answer her. 

“It won’t be so bad. You can always just avoid him after all, the cruise ship is gonna be big.” Kanaya continued, waving a lazy hand towards Dave who was now in a playful shoving match with John. It was… Kind of endearing to see actually.

You swallow down your bite of sandwich. “Vriska and Eridouche are gonna be there too, right?” Still grasping at straws here, Vantas. That’s just three people you absolutely hate over the other thirteen people you like who’s going.

Kanaya gives you an exasperated sigh. “You’re so stubborn.” She simply stated, taking a bite from her hashbrowns finally. You can’t help but smile a little.

“Alright, _fine_. I’ll check out this cruise thing we’re going on and what the shit we can even do while we’re there and _then_ I’ll decide. Don’t hold your breath though, just saying.” You finally say, continuing in the consumption of your lunch. Honestly, this ham sandwich is kinda stale.

The green-eyed girl beside you smiled fondly and poked you in the ribs with her elbow. “I suppose having you consider it is good enough. But I’m sure once you see the marvellous place we’ll be staying at, you’ll be hooked.” She said this matter-of-factly and you roll your eyes despite smiling.

“Whatever you say, Kan.”

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Home. Home always smelled of something faintly floral in the air along with the familiar scent of spices coming from the kitchen. The mixture of the smells always gets your whole body to relax upon contact with it.

Shuffling out of your converse, you leave it by the door and set your backpack right beside it before walking inside and locking the door behind you. The living room was sparse but you can hear the sizzling of something and the scrape of the spatula on something metal from the kitchen. Poking your head around the corner, you find your father cooking. As he always does. 

“I’m home.” You announce and he lifts his head to grin at you. You return the smile.

“I’m glad you’re home, Karkat. How was school?” He always asks this.

“It was fine.” You always answer in return, leaning against the archway into the wide kitchen space. “I have something I wanted to ask though..."

He whistled. “That’s something new. What’s up?”

You shrug, watching his wrist making flicking motions as he sauteed whatever vegetables were in the pan. “Well, I’m seventeen and all that, right? I’m basically just a year away from being a legal adult and moving out…”

He looked at you then back at the thing he’s cooking, before settling back on you. “Uh huh. Where’s this going?”

You bite the inside of your cheek. “Okay, um… Would you be okay if I went away with some friends for two months at the start of summer…? It’s like, a two-month long cruise so like…  I mean, like, some college student siblings of some of my friends will be tagging along too so we’re not completely unsupervised! But I can totally understand if you like, find that kind of shit too… Too much to ask or something. I totally get it if you don’t trust me to go- hell I don’t think I trust even myself but. I just thought I’d ask either way?”

He stares at you for a long moment before chuckling. He reached over to turn the stove off and put the spatula down on the counter and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “I trust you, Karkat. You’re a good kid. I honestly don’t really find anything wrong with that- as long as you’re not doing anything illegal or anything. And if you can keep me updated while you’re out wherever this trip is, I’ll be fine. I get it. You’re getting to an age where you’ll have to go to places without my supervision pretty soon and live a life of your own so I don’t think this is a bad start.” He shrugged. “You can go. Just. Tell me the exact details? Like when you’ll be going and when I can expect you to be back and all that.”

You bite the inside your cheek harder to stop yourself from smiling too widely. “Alright. Just give me a sec, I gotta clear shit up with my friends and then I’ll tell you everything.” You say with a nod, pushing yourself away from leaning on the entryway. “Um… Thanks. For trusting me enough to do this and all.”

The older man simply smiled lightly and nodded. “No problem. Dinner should be ready in a few more minutes. Come down when you’re ready.”

And with that, you duck your head and leave the kitchen.

Honestly, your father’s too kind to you. Even if you were adopted, he’s always treated you like his own even after your mother died when you were ten.

You’ve always known you were adopted. It wasn’t like, a thing they tried to hide from you even though they did adopt you when you were still an infant. About a year and two months. They didn’t hinder you from finding out your own real mom either, but you never bothered to look for her anyway. You didn’t need anyone else but them. Plus, what was the point in reaching out to someone who didn’t want you in the first place? So even if the option to go find your birth mother was there, you never took it. You just didn’t see the logic in it, nor were you curious to find out who she is. And even though you were their only child, they seemed content enough with you that there wasn’t much of a problem.

Although looking over at the empty living room, you realize that you’ll be leaving your father all alone for two whole months. It brings a new wave of guilt through you. The house has always been so much quieter after your mother died from a hereditary heart disease in her family. It’s… Depressing to think that he’ll be spending that long all alone in silence. You just hope he’ll find some way to get himself out of the house every now and again.

After lingering for a few minutes at the first steps of the stairs and staring at the dusting living room, you finally get your feet moving up and into your bedroom. You flop onto your nice single bed at the corner of the room and pull your phone out.

Time to do some research.

Rose had informed you that you’ll all be boarding one of the ships from Skaia Cruise Lines. A quick google search brings you to their page. She said that you’ll be embarking on it at July fourth, just a week after summer vacation officially starts and will be docking back to port at August thirty-first, also just one week before senior year starts up for all of you.

Looking through what they all have to offer… Well, let’s just say you’re a bit fucking starstruck at the sheer ludicracy of what you’re planning on signing up on. _Damn rich people_.

First of all, you did some math. From what you know, about twenty people will be joining you on the fifty-eight-day cruise. Rose also mentioned that each of you will get a top of the line suite which is about sixteen thousand and nine hundred sixty _per person_. That fucking means the whole trip costs around three hundred forty thousand approximately. Jesus fucking christ. _Rich people_.

The amount of things the cruise offers is fucking absurd too. There’s a small indoor strip mall, top deck swimming pool with fucking slides. _Slides_. Spa treatments, indoor arcades, a bar (expected), along with dozens of more activities included while you’re at sea waiting for the next landing destination. They’re literally going all fucking out for this to make the last time you’re all together as memorable as possible. It’s fucking ridiculous. And… Really touching actually. Going out with a big bang.

Fuck, now your pettiness seems really fucking insignificant now. Really, how can you say no to an offer like this especially when it’s being offered free by the ridiculously rich people in your friend group? Fucking hell.

Rose told you she’d give you the schedule for the whole trip on your way to the cruise ship. Apparently, the ones that pitched in to have this whole trip planned were Rose, Jade, John, Dave, Feferi, and Eridan. _Fucking rich people._

Kanaya wasn’t kidding when she said that after seeing exactly what you’re signing up for, your mind would change its stance on the whole thing.

You spent a good few hours exploring the site further and reading up on shit that can be found in your impending cruise trip. Excitement is bubbling up in your insides the more you find out and sooner than later, you’re texting Rose to admit defeat. You’ll be joining the rest of them on the cruise just like they were insisting you on doing.

You endured her smugness about the whole thing. A minor sacrifice for the greater good of your life in general.

 

Lesbian no.2 (Rose)  
  
Really though, I'm glad you've decided to join us, Karkat.   
  
It really wouldn't be the same without your abrasive self there to keep us in check.  
  
THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT ON MY WONDERFUL PERSONALITY, LALONDE.   
  
REAL FUCKING SINCERE.  
  
ANYWAY, JUST GIVE ME THE DETAILS SO I KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN.  
  
Alright. Give me a moment to type it all out. I'll send you a calendar with the dates and destinations we'll have for the next fifty-eight days we'll be spending on the cruise ship too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, Kanaya calls you and proceeds to geek out about how excited she is about the whole thing. It makes you smile. Terezi and a few others started buzzing you up the rest of the night after they found out that you’ve finally given up being stubborn and you all talked about the upcoming trip. You totally forgot to do the last few assignments you have left before the finals start. Whoops.

Near ten at night, you got showered, toothbrushed, and did your nightly routines. You found it kind of hard to sleep, thinking all about what's to come in a mere few days. It makes you smile.

Man. This was a summer you’ll surely never fucking forget.


	2. The Airfare To Get There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just having fun with writing this bois. This is probably not going to get very serious or deep. It's just mindless fun times with the whole crew. Hope you enjoy the ride as well.

The last week before finals came and went by rather quickly. You spent most of the days and the last free weekend in group studies with some of your friends. Most of the time, you spend those times with Rose and Kanaya but occasionally, a few of your other friends tag along to study for each of your own finals. Even Dave has enough agency to fucking open a book and actually do some work.

Sometimes though, when there’s too many of you, work doesn’t even get done. Or at least, some people get little to absolutely no work is done. It just ends up being a large group gathering for all of you. Terezi would cackle at the stupidly specific math equations of her calculus lessons. Eridan would be a loud mouth and blab on about random history facts that in no way relates to the material you’re all studying. Nepeta and Feferi attach both cat puns and fish/ocean puns on science terms to help themselves remember them and their definitions while it just confuses everyone else. Jade would be too enthusiastic about the whole group gathering together and would say sappy ‘I’m so happy we could all be together like this!’ every five fucking minutes. John uses the study group gatherings to bring his overflowing amount of pastries from home and share them with everyone, effectively distracting everyone from actually studying. Dave makes fucking raps about the different types of government and the various people in power in other countries they all need to memorize. And you, admittedly, shout and rant at everyone about the importance of learning about literature and language arts and it’s application to real life when they all ignore studying for it in favour of studying math, history, or science.

So yeah. The whole study group falls apart real fast if there’s too many of you. So you’ve all agreed to go on small little groups of two to three people to study with instead of being in one big group and constantly distracting one another. You chose to stay with Kanaya and Rose most of the time, but you join Aradia and Sollux or Nepeta and Equius every now and again for other subjects.

Most of the time, your group got together behind the school fields after school, or if it was too hot out, you would all go to one of your houses. The favourite pick was probably Feferi’s mansion of a home (it probably has something to do with the Olympic size pool they owned. Actually, who are you kidding? It has everything to do with the Olympic size pool they owned) or the equally grand mansion of Lalonde. Sometimes, you would chill at Jade’s too since her home is the third biggest out of all of you. Nobody liked going to Eridan’s because he was a shitty and snobby host.

Actually, you all got kicked out of Starbucks once because of public disruption with all the noise you caused inside the cafe attached to the local bookstore. You, Kanaya, Rose, Jade, Vriska, Terezi, and Dave got banned for a solid month from that specific Starbucks store. Which was a shame to you because it’s the closest one to your school and you liked making detours there to grab a cup of coffee to help you stay awake and study.

Surprisingly enough, Strider actually came to you for some help in language arts when he doesn’t exactly understand a concept or royally fucked up how to format an essay. For once, the two of you weren’t snarking each other to death at that time although a healthy amount of eye rolls were still there.

You’d never admit it, but it was nice, for a time. In the total of three times, he came to you for help personally (because Rose apparently barred him from getting help from her because he apparently just wastes her time by not taking shit seriously enough), it had been nice.

When Dave actually gets serious about his studying, he tends to be quiet and only bothered you to check if he was doing things correctly or not. You weren’t exactly expecting the blond to ever have it in himself to shut the fuck up. Ever. In the three years, you’ve known him, it was a strange yet nice change of pace.

The finals were… Well, they were exactly what you expected them to be. After all, you did a lot of studying all throughout the month before it so you were prepared. You knew what to expect and you knew how to answer. Since each day was only dedicated to one or two tests at a tithe me, the school was let out fairly early.

With the rest of the afternoon open, most of you continued to study last minute details for the next test the next day. But sometimes, you just took the time to hang around the local playground or see some movies in the local movie theatre with a few friends. It was quiet and peaceful full of fun hushed conversations.

And before you knew it, the last week of school finally came and went. Your last test had been the science one and you leave feeling pretty confident in your efforts.

After that, you and your friends had gone out to eat at the local diner, everyone pitching in to pay for the ridiculous amount of food you all ordered for yourselves. Hell, you filled about four booths for all of sixteen of you. Thankfully, the owner of the diner had known all of you basically since middle school when a few of you would go out to grab lunch there so she wasn’t too put off by your overall rowdiness. The fact that you guys were practically the only customers that evening helped.

You had sat around next to Dave of all people with Kanaya and Rose across from the two of you. The only thing you and Strider mutually agreed and upon was the level of cheesiness between the two. Half the time they acted like the two of you weren’t even there.

The celebration at the freedom from school was fun. All through the afternoon and evening, you had stayed at the diner, groups slowly migrated and intermingled with one another as it usually does. Your friend group just gets along nicely with one another. Watching how everyone interacted with one another blooms a warmth in your chest. Aradia, Nepeta, Feferi, and Jade gossiping to one another about the strangest things you would never understand because you weren’t a girl. Sollux and Equius bonding over the fact that the respective girl they usually hung out with left them behind. Gamzee and Tavros doing their tango of feelings around one another. John, Terezi, Vriska, and Eridan all being the rowdiest table out of all of you as they bickered back and forth about who knows what. It’s all fucking ridiculous, really.

But you love this crazy bunch of weirdos.

“Man, you’re a fucking sap, Vantas.” Strider casually comments whilst taking a sip from his strawberry milkshake. You pin him with a glare.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, asshat?”

He shrugged. “Just the look you give our friend group reminded of a momma bird looking proudly at her flock of newly hatched chicks. It’s really sentimental as all fuck.”

“Well, fucking excuse me for appreciating our friends every now and again like a mother to its fucking flock. I didn’t mean to subject you to my sentimental bullshit, I just fucking forgot how allergic you are to showing literally any other emotion than a blank slate!”

Strangely, he actually laughs at that. Sure, it’s a bizarre kind of chuckle with him trying to hide it by sipping on the straw of his milkshake but it counts nonetheless. You only realize then that although you’ve known Strider for three years, you’ve never completely bonded with him aside from the occasional snide comment thrown at one another during group discussions. You’ve never spent one on one time with him before as you had during and before finals week when he had asked for your help.

“So, why were you the one to invite me in the first place last week? I know you don’t give a shit about me as much as the others so it’s kinda surprising actually that you’re the first one to approach me about it.” You find yourself asking, turning your head to face him and resting your cheek on one hand.

Another shrug. “I don’t know, man. Rose asked me to since she was the one doing the inviting with all the others. I just happened to be the one assigned to you, I guess.”

You hum in acknowledgement of that reply.

After that, the two of you lapse into silence, both of you just doing some people watching in separate directions. You with the inside of the brightly lit diner. Him with the wide pane of glass looking out onto the street.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The week after being let out of school passed by fast. All of you spent most of the week doing some packing up for the two-month trip.

On the day you’re supposed to go to the trip, you had bid your father goodbye and left to meet the others at Rose’s home. She was providing the vans you’re all going to be riding at to the airport. There was three in total and only one of them looked normal. The other two were ridiculously coloured bright pink and bright orange and assaulted your eyes in ways that should be illegal. The pink was fucking covered in various designs of cats and the orange was thankfully mostly left unmarked side from glaringly obvious bumps and skid marks that honestly concerned you a little. But despite your grumbling, you had climbed into the car anyway.

Each van could seat nine people which meant it was just enough space for all of you and a designated driver. Which happened to be Rose’s and Dave’s older siblings. Roxy and Dirk, if you remember correctly. Apparently, the other two chaperones were going to just meet them at the site of the cruise. In the pink van was driven by Roxy and contained Aradia, Sollux, Nepeta, Equius, Kanaya, Rose, Vriska and Terezi. The second one, the bright orange was driven by Dirk and contained Eridan, Dave, Feferi, Jade, John, Tavros, Gamzee, and you.

You don’t even want to get into the seating plan of the van you were stuck with. At least without Vriska and Terezi cackling, it wasn’t as loud as you expected the whole hour ride to the airport would be. The only information that mattered was that you were stuck sitting with Gamzee and Tavros and Dave and Jade sat next to the passenger’s seat with his older brother.

The third van that was the only one that looked remotely normal was driven by a chauffeur and contained all of your bags and travelling equipment.

Sooner than later, you all arrived at the airport headed to Florida since that’s where the cruise starts off at. And as if they just couldn’t stop showing off, a private plane courtesy of crockercorp was the plane they were riding to get to their destination. _Fucking rich people_.

Everyone got into their groups and picked seats beside one another. Strangely enough, Dave decided to grace you with his presence during the ride. You did not enjoy this at all (that’s what you tell yourself anyway).

The flight was only about two hours long so it wasn’t very long. But for that two hours, you spent next to Dave, you listened to him ramble incoherently to himself and occasionally drop a beat. Which was annoying to say the least. When you called him out on this, the two of you got into an easy rapport with one another, with Dave constantly referencing vague or indie shit you’ve never even heard of. If you were being nice, you could probably say that at least it was entertaining.

But you’re not nice and Dave’s a bumbling idiot with a head to mouth filtering issue.

When your plane finally touches down, you left your fucking seat in a heartbeat.

There at the airport waiting for you were the last two people who were supposed to chaperone you. You met John’s other sister and heiress to crockercorp, Jane, and Jade’s cousin, Jake. Roxy, Dirk, Jake, Jane were all at the age of twenty-four and nearing the end of each of their college studies.

The two of them drove you to the docks where the cruise ship was. The scenery was nice on the way there, although you do have to say that there are too many palm trees and that the temperature was twenty degrees too hot. Fucking summer. You both love and hate it.

When you get there… Just. Man. You can’t help but repeat the same thought you had two weeks ago when you agreed to join in on this crazy affair.

This was going to be a summer to remember and no matter what happens, you’re never going to regret it. This is probably the single greatest decision you’ve made in your life yet.

You’re glad your friends got you into doing this.


	3. Get In Loser, We're Going Cruising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be putting the day and the location in the summary of every chapter starting here so be sure to check that out to have a sense of when everything is happening.
> 
> Shit will just keep happening from here on out. Have fun!
> 
> **Edit 12/17/18  
> I made art for it omg I'm too obsessed with this fic :'D I hate my style tho I'll have to work on that. More will probably be coming. Look out for that ;'D

It’s fucking massive.

You’ve never been great at estimating sizes but you can sure as hell measure this one. It’s long as shit and tall as fuck. That’s it’s literal measurement. You can even fucking see the various slides winding around the whole structure and probably ends in the indoor pool somewhere inside the thing. Holy fucking _shit._ _Fucking. Rich. People._

The had been parked nearby and you had all started hauling your shit out of the third van (there was a third van waiting for all of you again when you touched down from the airport all to accommodate your shit). You spent a good few minutes gawking at it before someone just had to ruin it for you.

“First time being up close and personal with a luxury cruise ship, Karkles?” Strider snarked, holding his duffel bag in one along while the other was pocketed in his jean pocket. He carried a lightweight looking backpack with him too.

“Shut the fuck up, ass-backwards featherbrain. Like you see this shit on a daily basis.” You snapped back, moving to the van where all the others were getting their own shit out of the van. He follows you.

“Nah. Your reaction was just kinda hilarious, dude. All wide-eyed and mouth open like a fucking five year in a palace made out of literal candy. And to make it even more clichéd, it’s fucking Christmas day and little Suzy is on her wonderful Christmas tale adventure with a plot that’s worth to be shown in theatres like some big budget blockbuster instead of a straight to DVD release like all shitty Christmas themed movies released every fucking year.” Like you said. He has a head to mouth filter issue. He literally spits out whatever is on his mind at you like a fucking word vomit freight train that’s lost its brakes.

“Do us all a fucking favour, Strider.” You tell him, slinging on your own backpack and carrying your two medium-sized travel suitcases in each hand. “Grab some tissues, shove it all the way to the back of your fucking throat until you choke on it, and shut the hell up.”

He makes a quiet ‘pffft’ noise at you as he continues to follow you up to the docking area along with everyone else to get checked in. “You’re fucking violent, man.”

“Trust me, I can describe in gritty detail what I want to do to your bowels and other internal organs every time you open your mouth.” You give him a sideways glance.

The rest of the others follow after behind you, a quiet buzz of excitement going through everyone. You can’t blame them, you’re pretty fucking excited yourself, but you try to keep that shit internal. You’re not giving Strider the satisfaction of seeing you geek out over shit that must be normal for him with his filthy wealthy life.

There was a person upfront checking everyone in and taking people’s passes before being let forward into the platform leading into the ship. You pat your jean pockets and fish out the pass Rose had all given each one of you.

Once you're finally faced with the ticket attendant, you hand him your cruise pass and flips through pages on his clipboard. After scribbling something on the paper, he gives you back your pass with the barcode x-ed out and dismissively waves you in looking as disinterested as he could with his life.

You duck your head and enter the narrow space leading into the ship. You follow the rest of the crowd into a narrow yet expensively decorated hallway with doors on either side. The carpet is a deep blood red and the walls looked to be the colour of bright beige yellow with the amber fluorescence of the light that lined the ceiling. You guess that those doors are the first few cabins on the first floor of the ship.

When you look back, you see the rest of your friends chatting with one another as they walked down the same path with Dave smiling smugly at you ever so slightly as he walked directly behind you. You would flip him off if your hands weren’t occupied. The best you can do is an eye roll before putting your attention back in front of you.

It wasn’t a long walk before you pass through a golden archway decorated with fancy swirls and curls. What really takes your breath away though, was the interior of the whole place.

[The fucking atrium was gorgeous.](https://www.boredart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/cruise-ship-interior-5.jpg) The very top of the atrium had glass panes in the shape of a dome, letting natural light seep into the room. The interior was a massive circular room with lounge chairs all around. There were four see-through elevators at each corner of the room that reached all the way to the top floors. The whole thing glittered like a diamond under bright fluorescent lights. The colour scheme of blacks, whites, golds, and reds was tantalizing and everything generally felt like a fucking fever dream. Various other tenants were walking around and chatting and taking pictures and some were looking down from above.

You were kind of dumbstruck, standing there with your suitcases and staring up at the thing, taking the whole place in. Fuck.

Just.

 _Fuck._  

Dave stands beside you, that same smug smirk playing on his lips. He glanced your way and you level him a glare, but strangely enough, he doesn’t say anything about your awkward amazement of the whole thing.

“Alright, kids! Follow me and I’ll show you guys where your suites are!” Roxy shouted, waving her arms around enthusiastically to catch everyone’s attention. She caught more than just your group’s attention.

The neon pink wearing adult skipped to the nearest elevator while the other four followed behind her along with the rest of you. Although, since you can’t cram twenty people inside one elevator, the other group moved to take another elevator next to it. You were stuck with Roxy and Jake while Dirk and Jane took the other group.

All of you rode the elevator near the top, stopping a couple of floors shy of the very top of the atrium. Roxy chatted with Jake animatedly about something you don’t care enough to listen to. Instead, as you walk through the red-carpeted floor of the hallway, you look out at the railing overlooking the whole thing to your right.

Fuck, you’re so high up. Goddamn.

When you meet back up with the other half of the group, the four adults lead you into one of the hallways that went further into the interior of the place. They made a few twists and turns before coming upon the edge of the boat with railing all across the length of the ship. Mahogany red doors lined the opposite side of the railings against an off white wall.

“The first twenty doors to your right is ours, people! Pick a room before coming to Janey over here so she can give ya the right keys to the right doors!” She happily announced, waving around her key before turning around and sliding it into the door closest to her. It pops open and she strolls inside.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter which room you pick, they’re all virtually the same in design,” Dirk speaks up with a shrug.

And so, all of you started to get a key from Jane and one by one, each of your group disappeared into their respective rooms.

“Which room you gonna get, Kitkat?” Dave asks you out of nowhere that you’re startled for a moment. You look down the hallway and shrug.

“I think I’ll get the last one. 453? And don’t call me that, shitstain.” You answered casually enough before narrowing your eyes suspiciously at him. “Why?”

“Cool.” He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “And nothing. I was just wondering, dude.”

Once it was finally your turn, you tell Jane the suite number you want and she hands you the right key from her small sling bag. You thank her before going over to your room at the last door that was reserved for your group. As you’re sliding your key into place, you glance up to notice that Strider has taken the room right next to yours.

What the fuck?

You give him an incredulous look as you opened your door. But either he didn’t notice you or pointedly ignored you because he slips inside his room and closes the door behind him quietly. You snort and do the same.

The room was fairly large. Probably just a little bigger than your room back at home but with a big queen sized bed in the middle instead of a shabby single at the corner of the room. There were small bedside cabinets on either side of the bed with a fancy looking lamp on top of each. There was also a sliding closet embedded into the wall opposite of the bed. A comfy looking leather chair sat in the corner with a coffee table and a fairly large flat screen t.v. set up on the wall. The floor was a carpeted in the colour of coffee brown and the walls were a light grey colour. The room was brightly lit so the dull colours didn’t actually bring the mood down. The fact that the bedsheets were white with popping colours for pillow helped lift the atmosphere of the room. There was also an abstract painting of what you think is a fish atop the bed and few other smaller framed pieces of art hanging around the walls. It was kinda chilly in there too, no doubt due to the air conditioning system in the room. A blessing to get away from the heat of the summer.

There was also a door that led to a sizable enough bathroom with a wide bathtub space. It’s great.

You sighed in relief and dropped your things near the sliding closet before flopping down onto the bed. You were fucking tired from all of the travelling, even if it wasn’t all that much. You lazily pulled off your shoes and your socks and crawled on the bed on top of the bedsheets.

It was soft to the touch and the mattress conformed to the shape of your body as you sunk into the bed. Memory foam. You sighed, unable to help the grin off of your face. Two months of this for free? Fuck, you’ve hit gold. You gotta thank Jade, Rose, John, Feferi, and Eridan for managing to schedule this whole thing. And maybe even Dave, you thought hazily as a yawn escaped between your lips.

Honestly, you were too tired to really think much of anything at the moment. Maybe you’ll take a little nap. Then you can go explore the shit out of this cruise ship.

But for now, sleep is calling to you like a siren to a sailor at sea. You close your eyes and before long, you’re out like a light bulb.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You wake up eventually. A quick check on your phone tells you that you’ve been asleep for about an hour and a half. You arrived at Florida sometime around noon and now it’s around three in the afternoon. You sat up and yawned, stretching out your limbs on the bed and fisting your eyes blearily.

You begin to unpack your things, putting them into the sliding closet while you checked your phone and now and again. Looks like you’ve got multiple messages from multiple people asking you where the hell you’ve been. You painstakingly tell each person who asked that you took a nap. A few answered you back right away.

Apparently, Terezi, Vriska, Tavros, Gamzee, and John had gone out to check out the various restaurants available aboard the ship. Jade, Feferi, and Nepeta were wandering around the ship somewhere. Rose and Kanaya were chilling at the very top deck, doing god knows what (probably making out), Equius had gone off to check out the gym, and Aradia and Sollux were at the arcade and Eridan is taking a fucking mud bath (Jade told you from what Feferi told her). Seems like only you and Dave stuck around inside your own cabins.

Shit. There’s so much to fucking do. Not to mention the things you could do at the cities you’ll be stopping at for a day or two.

For now, though, you slipped out of your travel clothes and changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt.

You step out of your room and walk over to Strider’s. You knock heavily on the door and crossed your arms as you waited for it to open.

There was a faint groan from inside and a loud thump. You guess that that might’ve been Dave falling off the fucking bed. And then, ta-da! The door is opened.

“Vantas.” He greets you with little enthusiasm. “The fuck do you want, man? I was getting my fucking nap on. Sandman has his shit all over me and then you just come rolling in with a fucking vacuum cleaner to suck up all that elusive Sandman sand that puts people to sleep and just-"

You put your hand over his mouth to shut him the fuck up. And then you push him inside his room so you can get inside too. You take your hand off of his mouth as soon as you’re inside. He raised an eyebrow above his shades at you as he stumbled down and took a seat on his bed.

“What do you want?” He said straightforwardly this time, crossing his arms. You bite your lip.

“Why did you choose the room close to mine?” And because he was straightforward, so were you. He keeps his one eyebrow raised at you, letting a few beats of silence settle before answering.

“Because I can?”

You closed your eyes and pinched the bridge of your nose. “You’ve been acting kind of weird, Strider. You’ve been hanging around strangely close to me all on our way here. What’s your fucking motive?”

Another beat of silence. Then a snicker that makes your eyes snap open to glare at him. “Fuck dude.” He makes a quiet wheezing noise, an attempt to hold back a bark of laughter. You can tell. “You’re reading too much into this, man. I just chose the room randomly, no ulterior motive whatsoever.”

You don’t quite believe that but it’s not like you have any evidence to make a proper case file on this court hearing. “Are you sure about that, Strider? Because in all the three years we've known each other, you’ve always acted like I didn’t exist and now you’re kind of trailing around behind me like a lost puppy on a fucking rainy day with nowhere else to go.”

He crossed his arms, a flicker of a smirk displaying itself across his lips. “I’m sure, Karkat. You’re over analyzing this shit again like you always do with anything that has anything remotely to do with your life. Which, by the way, isn’t always everything. The universe doesn’t revolve around Karkat Vantas and his self-esteem issues. Just because I chose a room next to you means jack shit so get your mind out of the perpetual romantic comedy cloud nine it’s in twenty-four seven and stop assigning meaning where there is none.”

You hate that your cheeks flash red. Sure, your dark complexion makes it so blushes don’t appear as noticeably on your skin, but you still hate it with a passion nonetheless. You let out a growling noise and turn sharply on your heel to exit his room. “You’re a big dick, Strider.”

“You mean I’ve got a big dick.” He calls after you as you slip out the door. You flip him off with both hands before slamming the door closed.

Alright, now that you thought more about it… It was kind of irrational that your mind jumped to conclusions that there was some sort of meaning as to why he picked a room next to you or kept close to you ever since the end of the last school semester. There was nothing inherently wrong with it so… Why does it even bother you? Why the fuck should you care? If he can ignore your existence for three years straight, you can do the same to him for two months on a luxury cruise.

Yeah. You don’t give a shit about Strider. Much less ever think that there’s a chance he’s got romantic intentions like in the dozens of romantic movies you’ve watched with this exact same premise. Your life isn’t a fucking movie. And you sure as hell would never want that fair-haired fucker as a romantic lead. You don’t give a shit.

You really, really don’t.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The ship takes off for the sea at exactly four in the afternoon. You had leaned out on the railing just outside of your cabin and watched as the ship slowly left the port. Water spouted out from all around the gigantic white structure as the ship pushed forward and out into the open seas. Thankfully, you were too high up to be splashed by the water.

All around you were other passengers looking out at the railing and watching as the beach of Fort Lauderdale, Florida get farther and farther away. In under an hour or so, the land in which you came from is no longer visible. All you can see is the setting sun bathing the blue skies in light hues of pinks and purples before being taken over by deep blues and blacks as time went on. The scenery was peaceful, but you were a buzz of excitement. This was really happening. You were on a fucking luxury cruise for the first time in your life and you didn’t have to pay a single fucking penny for this shit.

While you watched the ship move along the dark blue of the sea below you, you kept tapping out an erratic beat on the white painted railing in front of you. It was quite high, reaching just a little below your chest, but that was probably just to ensure safety and make sure no one accidentally falls overboard.

The next time you check your phone, it’s around five thirty already. There were a couple of texts you received as well.

 

 

Squiddlebutt (Jade)  
  
hey!!  
  
where are you right now??  
  
youre missing the epic party!!! :D  
  
I'M CHILLING IN MY CABIN.  
  
WHAT EPIC PARTY ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?  
  
top deck dummy!  
  
theres a welcoming party for the passengers to kick off the cruise  
  
youre missing out! so hurry your loud little butt over here!  
  
ALRIGHT, FINE. I'LL BE ON MY WAY THERE.

 

 

Lesbian No.1 (Kan)  
  
I Would Simply Like To Inform You That Theres A Party Happening At The Top Deck If Youre Ever Interested In Joining  
  
YEAH, I HEARD FROM JADE.  
  
I'LL BE THERE IN A FEW.

 

 

Hello kitty (Nep)  
  
where are you karkitty?  
  
i was hoping to spend some quality time with mew!  
  
plus  
  
the partys not complete without my fa-fur-rite shouty shorty!  
  
IM ON MY WAY THERE NEPETA. AND IF YOU COULD PLEASE REFRAIN FROM EVER CALLING ME THAT AGAIN, THANKS.  
  
pawsome!

 

 

 

 

You took the elevator to get to the very top floor before climbing up the stairs that led up to the top deck.

The indoor top deck was lit up with various neon colours splashing the furniture in blasts of colour. There was a bar in one corner and a crowd of other passengers were milling about or sitting around on the comfortable leather seats scattered around the room. You don’t see anyone you know so you push through people and step foot outside. By this time, most of the pastel colours in the sky has faded and the dark blue of the evening was taking over everything. The outside was similarly lit, neon pinks, purples, oranges and reds lighting up the wide space. There was also a few strung up white fairy lights overhead that glittered like stars. On either side was a long staircase that led to another level of the top deck where you can overlook the ocean in relative peace, away from the party.

It wasn’t very cool up there, nor was it really hot. A middle ground lukewarm feeling surrounded the place. There were a lot of people in bathing suits, taking a dip in the wide pool area or splashing around in the waterpark/playground. Some held drinks in their hands and chatted with one another. Thankfully, it wasn’t like the place was overcrowded or anything. Turning around, you see a wide banner pasted atop the roof of the indoor top deck you just came in from. It reads in bright mint blue lettering ‘THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING SKAIA CRUISE LINES’.

Just like when you were inside, there was a loud pulsing beat ringing throughout the place. You realize that they’re playing some pop music to liven the place up. It wasn’t loud to the point of irritating, but just enough to make your heart beat to the same rhythm the music was playing at. A couple of balloons were tied to the railings all around the space with streamers of every colour hanging from the ceiling (if there was any).

You continue to look around for any familiar faces when you feel someone wet tackle you from behind and lean all their weight on you, making you stumble forwards a bit. “Karkles! You’re here! I fuckin thought you were going to be a shut-in party pooper like on most parties you’re invited at back home!”

That cackle was iconic. “Ugh, what the fuck, Terezi? Now you’ve got me all wet and shit!” You complained, trying to shrug her off of your back but she only clings onto tighter, pressing your bodies together. A year ago, this would’ve made your heart race. But thankfully, you’re over that for a while now. It just makes you smile fondly now.

“Don’t be a wet rag, Vantas! You should totally take a dip in the pool sometime, it’s fucking amazing!” She laughed loudly and pulled out her phone. You scowled at the harsh white light of the camera as she snapped a photo of the both of you from an above angle.

Aftter that, she finally lets go of you and taps a few times on her phone before showing you the result of the picture. You looked terrible, as you usually do in photos, and Terezi had on that familiar crazed grin on her face, the light reflecting off of her bright red glasses. Underneath was the caption “TH3 LOS3R 1S F1N4LLY H3R3” in bold teal letters. Then, she sent the snap to whoever the fuck and puts it on her story too.

 

 

“Fuck, Terezi. You’re just merciless, aren’t you?” You groaned, assessing the water damage to your clothes. Most of your back and half of your side is damp from chlorine water. Yuck.

“Stop whining, Karkles. At least I didn’t shove you into the pool like what Jade did to me.” She’s grinning at you, pocketing her phone back into her shorts pocket. She’s soaking wet, first of all, water droplets falling from her face and down her neck and arms and legs. Her dark ginger hair clung to her face and framed it perfectly. And even though you are over her romantically, the fact that her white t-shirt is see-through while it’s wet still makes heat rush up your neck and into your cheeks. The fact that she’s wearing a bright as fuck red bra underneath isn’t helping at all.

You force your eyes away from her chest and roll your eyes. For once, you’re glad she’s blind so she has no idea of the way your body is betraying you right now. “Where are the others anyway?” You ask instead, looking around. Then you screw up your face. “Wait. How the fuck did you even find me first before anyone else?”

Terezi makes a ‘tsk tsk’ sound as she raised her pointer finger and wiggled it from side to side. “I’ve told you before, Karkat. And literally every other person I’ve ever met. Don’t question my senses. I’m like the fucking daredevil, I know exactly where everything is without having to rely on my vision.”

“Right. Your weird sniffing and licking things to assess your surroundings. Totally not going to question how that works in the least.”

She cackles once more. She cackles a lot. You’ve made that observation many times before.

“I don’t know where everyone is, but I do know that Jade, Aradia, Feferi, and Nepeta were hanging around the pool somewhere-" She paused from looking around, and tapped her finger on her chin. “Nep has been looking for you, by the way.”

You bite your lip. Right. Nepeta.

You know she’s had a crush on you for years now, and you’ve been waiting a long time for her to confess just so you can be an asshole and turn her down. But. Well. That hasn't happened yet and it’s been five years since you’ve known her. And it looks like you’re an even bigger asshole by not telling her that she should give up hope on you and find someone better. Really, you don’t how to approach things with her half the time. Whenever you do get the nerve to gently tell her that you’re not interested, she changes her tune and tells you that she just wants to be friendly or be better _friends_ with you. And uh. Yeah. You have no idea how to deal with that.

“Mmmm. I smell nervousness on you, mister!” Terezi grinned, putting both hands on her hips and called you out. You sigh heavily.

“Where did you last see her?”

Terezi continued to grin. It’s starting to unsettle you, as it usually does when she holds that same maniac grin for too long. “Try the desserts table. I heard Jade pulling her along with her to check out ‘the loot’.” The ginger-haired girl points to the other side of the pool.

You give her a stiff nod and made your way over. “Good luck!!” She called after your retreating form. You cringe at the shrillness of her voice.

The desserts table was actually pretty fucking long. It’s multiple tables pressed on one side of the wall with a white tablecloth over it. Bright neon pink and orange lights tint the food so you’re not really sure of their actual colours.

You easily spot Jade’s long as fuck black mane. She’s got it in a high ponytail and she’s got a deep forest green wrap around skirt on her hips and a plain black one piece. Beside her was Nepeta with a brightly coloured swimsuit shawl around her shoulders and reached down to her knees. You bite your lip and slowly approach the two girls.

Jade sees you first and bursts into a wide grin, waving to you with the macaroon she’s got on her hand. “Karkat! You made it!” Her face slowly turns into a puzzled frown. “Why’re you all wet and damp?”

You roll your eyes. “Terezi hugged the shit out of me while she was still wet as fuck. Trust me, this shit is uncomfortable as all fuck right now. I’d abscond the fuck out of here right now if I wouldn’t get a thousand messages from everyone calling me a party pooper in a variety of ways, some probably directly relating it to actual feces and toilets.”

At the mention of Terezi hugging you, you see Nepeta tense up from the corner of your eye. She recovers fast though and you don’t want to call her out on something so minor like that. “Oh. Well, that sucks.” Jade simply says with a shrug.

“Well, while you’re still here, you should enjoy yourself, Karkitty!” Nepeta chirps happily. She gives Jade a side glance.

The green-eyed girl’s eyes widen for a split second before popping the macaroon into her mouth. “Well, I gotta go. Me and Terezi still gotta do that cannonball challenge to see who can get the biggest splash and annoy other passengers!” She said through her chewing, taking slow steps backwards from the desserts table. You knew this would happen. You sigh, resigning into your fate.

Once Jade is out of earshot, Nepeta smiles sweetly at you and pulls on your sleeve to join her on the section of the desserts table. You awkwardly join her, eyeing all the pastries.

“You should try this one, Karkitty! It’s pretty good!” She tells you as she cuts a piece of what looks like flan into her small plate and hands you a conveniently placed nearby fork.

You try your best and smile at her, taking the fork and taking a piece as she holds the plate for you. It’s… It's actually not that bad. The caramel coating is a bit too sweet for your taste though.

“It’s pretty good.” You tell her, awkwardly swallowing thickly. She grinned.

“So, anyway, um… What do you think of my swimsuit by the way?” She very unsubtly asks you, avoiding eye contact.

Shit.

Nepeta wasn’t terrible looking. She’s definitely got that cutesy aesthetic down, but it’s just… Not something you’re into? She’s only four inches shorter than you (you’re fucking short as shit. A measly five, seven), with curly caramel blonde hair and big mossy green eyes. Her skin’s fair and dotted with freckles. From what you know, she’s got some Irish ancestry.

But anyways, you look her up and down and bite your lip. You smile. Complimenting her is easy. “You look really great, Nep.” You tell her honestly. Because she is. She’s wearing a pastel pink two-piece with a cat-shaped hole at the chest. Which, uh, doesn’t really do much, she’s pretty flat chested. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It’s not like you even think about her in that _way_ and just-

Yeah. This train of thought is a fucking trainwreck. Abandon ship.

She smiled brightly at you and you swear you can see her eyes sparkle. What the fuck are you doing to this poor girl’s heart? God, you are such a fucking asshole.

She begins to talk animatedly at you now that the ice has been broken and she’s gotten what she wanted to hear from wearing that type of swimsuit. You casually push your hands into your pocket and try your best to follow along with her story of misadventures at the pool with Aradia, Feferi, Jade, and Terezi.

But you can’t help your eyes from wandering around the crowd. All around was filled with chatter and loud music and happy energy.

A flash of light catches your attention.

Not far from where you were was a bar with stools lined up all along the counter. The slowly moving neon lights hit a pair of shades and distractingly makes it glitter for a moment. But a moment was enough of a distraction.

Dave Strider was staring at you from his seat on the last stool at the corner of the counter. He looked like he was sipping a glass of strawberry milkshake of all things. But as soon as he realizes that you’re looking his way, he moves his head slowly around the crowd like that was what he was doing all along and not having his eyes fixated on you.

“Karkitty?”

Nepeta’s voice cuts across the static that started to fill your ears. You snap your attention back to her and fuck, she looks hurt. And although she hides it with a bright smile, you know the damage you’ve done.

You chat with her for a while longer, feeling the damp spot in your clothes dry off naturally as the night moved on.

But black shining white for a single moment in time gets stuck inside your head.

You convince yourself that you’re thinking too much into this like you always do. It was nothing. Dave was right. The universe does not revolve around Karkat Vantas, both good and bad.

It was nothing. You remind yourself that. It was nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who's curious, I've got about 10 chapters already done on this fic (working on the 11th rn) at the date this chapter is posted. Don't know when I'll upload the others though, coding text messages is a bitch and very time consuming.
> 
> **Edit 12/17/18  
> The next art will probably be in chapter 17 :")


	4. Hunting For Booty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 & 3 - At Sea

The night had ended pretty late for you. It was already three-ten in the morning when you had all decided to finally hit the hay and go the fuck to sleep.

At that time, everyone had gathered indoors and you had all pushed the remaining seats around to create a circle that could fit all of you. There were only a few people left in the top deck at that time of the night as most had left to go to sleep in their respective cabins. The only ones that were left were like, drunk people and alcoholics, some passed out on various areas of the top deck.

Roxy had decided to have all of you play ‘never have I ever’ so you all get to know your four new chaperones. There was no actual drinking involved in this one, Jane was very strict on that, and discussions from the statements simply occurred. Only a few rounds of it were actually done since there were so many of you to go through, but as the night went on, the group slowly dwindled as more and more of your friends left to sleep. You were one of the later ones to go because it had honestly been genuinely entertaining to listen to some fucked up stories you haven’t heard of from some of your friends.

When you left, the last ones to stay had been Dirk, Roxy, Vriska, John, Tavros, Terezi, Aradia, Equius, Rose and Kanaya.

It was around noon when you finally woke up. Mostly from the constant ringing of your phone on your bedside table.

And holy shit do you have a lot of messages when you woke up.

Squiddlebutt (Jade)

  
where are you??????  
  
you keep on missing out on stuff karkat!  
  
get your sleepy butt up and over to the top deck!!

 

Lesbian No.2 (Rose)  
  
I believe you would enjoy this activity our whole group is participating in this lovely morning.  
  
Come to the top deck when you're awake.

 

Little guppy (Fef)  
  
KARKAT!!!  
  
WAK--E UPPPPP!  
  
T)(IS IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANC--E!  
  
)(URRY UP AND G--ET TO TH--E TOP D--ECK AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!

 

  
  
She then continues to spam you with the same photo of one of her pet betta fishes back at home. What the fuck.

Guy who fucks bees (Sol)  
  
ugh.  
  
the giirl2 wanted me two pe2ter you. 2aiid iit would take all of our combiined effort2 two wake you the fuck up.  
  
hone2tly iit'2 kiinda 2tupiid two be textiing you iin the hope2 of wakiing you up when we could techniically ju2t 2torm your cabiin and per2onally wake you up.  
  
but of cour2e that'2 a2kiing two much from our lazy a2 fuck friiend2.  
  
ju2t get your a22 up two the top deck.

 

Gamzee  
  
kArBrO  
  
YoU sHoUlD jOiN iN oN tHiS mOtHeRfUcKiN mIrAcLe rIdE.  
  
  tOp DeCk MoThErFuCkEr.

 

PSHOOOOO! (John)  
  
hi  
  
hi  
  
come to top deck  
  
hi

 

He proceeds to spam you with those two same messages, alternating every now and again. What the fuck.

why haven't i blocked you yet? (Dave)

  
man  
  
you should wake the fuck up already dude  
  
the girls are harassing us to message you  
  
like  
  
its so fucking ridiculous this shit isnt even all that interesting  
  
its just some bullshit bonding thing i couldnt give less of a shit about  
  
but the girls are very adamant about having everyone participate so  
  
get up and get your lazy ass to top deck before we end up having to go to court after filing a restraining order on the girls and end up wasting our two months and all our rich people money on legal fines  
  
terezi is a fucking monster at court shell eat us all alive  
  
and shell do it legally

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the fuck?

You groaned into your pillow and muted your phone because it was still buzzing with notifications in your hand as you scrolled through all of that bullshit.

Tiredly, you get your ass up from the bed. It’s exactly twelve thirty and you really would like to continue sleeping through the rest of the morning and possibly late into the afternoon. It’ll be another day on the ship before you get to your first stop anyway.

Still, you changed out of yesterday's clothes, pulling on a fresh set of dark washed jeans and a loose white panic at the disco! band t-shirt. Then, pocketing your phone, you head up to the top deck to see what’s got everyone so fucking excited they decided to leave a thousand messages in your inbox.

You had gone down to the Subway in the ship to get breakfast/lunch (brunch?) before heading for the top deck. You eat on your way there. The ship was abuzz with activity when you get up to there and you notice only a few of your friends still there. Mainly Jade, Rose, Kanaya, Nepeta, Terezi and Dave. They’re all lounging around one of the seats near the window when you approach.

“Alright, what the fuck is up this morning that you all so graciously thought it’d be a good fucking idea to break my phone’s inbox and notification system?” You start, plopping yourself down on the couch beside Terezi, finishing off the last bits from your sandwich. You throw the wrapper the sandwich came in into the nearby trash bin beside the couch.

“It’s a group activity thing! The whole ship’s doing it.” Pyrope tells you happily. You raise an eyebrow.

“First of all, you should grab a piece of paper from the boxes over there.” Kanaya is quick to inform you, pointing a manicured finger at the circular table in the middle of the room. “We’ll explain what this whole thing is about when you grab one.”

You grumble quietly to yourself but head over to the table. On top of it were three boxes. The first one said ‘ages 5 - 10’. The second was ‘ages 11 - 19’. The last one said ‘ages 20 - and older’. You check inside each one and find a bunch of red pieces of paper inside them. You stick your hand inside the middle one that said ‘11 - 18’ (you’re seventeen) and pulls out a piece of red paper in the shape of a… A broken heart? Well, one side of a broken heart. It was jagged on one side and a smooth curve in the other. On the paper said ‘Anna’ in fine cursive letters made by a sharpie marker. What the fuck.

You move back to your group with a deep scowl. “What the fuck is this?”

Terezi gave you a shark-like smile. “Basically, you’re given one half of an iconic duo and you have to go around the ship and find the other half of your iconic duo. Then you gotta spend the whole day today and tomorrow with them looking for pieces of paper in the shape of a pirate hat.” She explains to you, showing off a small piece of black paper in the shape of exactly how she described it as. “The duo with the most pirate hats at the end of the day tomorrow wins. It’s like, some sort of activity to help all the passengers bond with each other or something. Meet a possibly new friend, that type of thing. It’s completely up to you if you wanna join though.”

Your scowl deepens. Social interactions. _Social interactions with strangers_. Truly, your worst nightmare comes to life.

“I got Lavagirl.” Kanaya pipes up. “I suppose I’m supposed to look for my Sharkboy then.”

Rose sighed. “And sadly, I have Kylie Jenner. I really am not motivated at all to look for Kendall Jenner.” Kanaya pats her shoulder, looking at her with a sorry expression.

Terezi cackled. “I have Netflix. I think I’m supposed to find someone with Chill.”

“And I’ve got Kanye of all people.” Jade huffed, crossing her arms. “Am I supposed to look for Kim Kardashian then? Or am I supposed to find someone with a Kanye too? I mean, what iconic duo is Kanye even apart of aside from being shipped with himself?”

“John got Gabriella from high school musical. I think Gamzee actually got Troy? I think they’re somewhere around the ship hunting for pirate hats right now.” Terezi supplies.

“Gamzee and John? That’s a crack ship if I’ve ever seen one.” You snort.

“Sollux fucked right off and said he wasn’t going to spend time looking for the Laurel to his Yanny.” Dave added, amusement in his tone. “I don’t blame him. The next worst thing is having to find the gold dress when you have the blue dress. Which is what Dirk has to do. That was a shitty meme to go viral. Like, if there was a leaderboard for shitty internet memes, those two would be up at the top. The top of the shitiest, most foul smelling, pile of shitty internet memes.”

“Honestly, I’d disagree with you on the front of those two being the shittiest internet memes to go viral,” Rose spoke up with a shrug. “Equius got ‘Damn Daniel’ and he’s paired up with Vriska who got ‘White Vans’. That truly is the stupidest and shittiest of all viral internet memes.”

“To add to the iconic duos that also happen to be shitty internet memes, I saw Eridan’s snap. Apparently, he’s got Monika and he found some fifteen-year-old chick with an MC-kun on her half of the paper heart. Someone actually fucking thought that _that_ was a valid iconic duo to put down. Even more incredible are the chances that they even found each other.” Terezi cackled.

“Oh man. Does someone have Youtube? Man, I fucking hope that their partner is someone with demonetization.” Dave chuckled lightly at his own damn joke.

“I wonder if they simply thought it would be humorous to just fill the teens' box with memes.” Kanaya wondered out loud. Rose laughed quietly, putting a hand over her lips.

“At least it’s clear who they need to find.” Nepeta sighed defeatedly. “I got Shrek. So like… Am I supposed to find Fiona? Or is it Donkey I’m supposed to look for? Maybe his swamp? Or is it onions? Literally, any of those would be a valid partner for Shrek to make an iconic duo.”

Dave snorted. “Maybe it’s someone’s asshole.” He mutters to himself. Okay. You have to admit, that was kind of hilarious. You keep in your laugh in though and end up wheezing weirdly.

“What did you get, Karkitty?” Nepeta asks you and you focus on her to stop yourself from bursting out in laughter.

“What? Oh, um…” You wave around your piece of paper. “I got Anna.” Nepeta’s hopeful expression immediately falls to one of disappointment.

“Holy shit.” Dave mutters behind you and you raise your eyebrow at him.

“What?”

“Oh my god, I can’t fucking believe this.” He muttered, roughly running his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe that _you_ of all people would be the Anna to my fucking Elsa.”

You’re staring at him, wide-eyed. “No fucking way.”

He pulls his piece of paper out from his pocket and hands it to you. “Nah man. I literally got Elsa.”

You see Rose smirk from the corner of your vision. “Looks like fate to me.”

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

It’s strange that Strider changed his tune on the whole scavenger hunt once he found out you were supposed to be his partner. He said he didn’t give a shit about it in your texts but now he’s actually pretty pumped to go walking around looking for paper pirate hats.

“I just didn’t feel like putting in the effort of actually finding my partner.” He had explained to you. “But since you’re apparently my partner and it literally took no effort on my part to find you, I thought I’d actually give it a try. Get a tour of the whole place while looking for shitty paper pirate hats.”

You had accepted his explanation, keeping the two incidents with Dave out of your mind. “Even if you want to look for worthless pirate hats, I don’t feel like walking around the whole fucking ship for the whole fucking day. You’re free to look for them on your own though.”

You were about to turn and leave for your suite when he grabs your wrist. He quicklys drops it when you turn your head to raise your eyebrow at him. He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

“C’mon man. It won’t be as fun doing this shit on my own. Walking around without you ranting my ears off about how stupid I am? Boring.”

“How much of a masochist are you to actually find me berating your ass endlessly _entertaining?_ I think you need to see a doctor asap to see exactly how brain damaged you are, Strider. Were you dropped on the head as a baby, Strider? Were you?”

He smirked. “Dude, I can write you a whole ten-page essay about exactly why you’re entertaining as hell to interact with.”

You’re not sure if that was a compliment or an insult to your personality. You choose to ignore it. “You sure you can write me a proper ten-page essay without my help formatting it, douchenozzle?”

He actually turns a light shade of pink in embarrassment. “I knew asking you for help on studying for language arts was a bad idea.”

“Right. Well, whatever, I’m leaving.” You tell him and tried to walk away once more when he grabs your wrist again. He doesn’t let go this time.

“C’mon, Vantas. What do I have to do to get you to look for shitty pirate hats with me?” You consider his question for a moment.

Then, you smile cheekily. “Say please.”

He raised an eyebrow at you and when he’s sure you won’t run away again, he drops your hand. You cross them across your chest.

“You want me to say please.” He deadpans more than really asks.

“What? Is Dave Strider too good to say please to a commoner like me? If you want my shitty company so badly, ask for it properly instead of trying to bribe me with favours, fuck face.”

You watch him work his jaw quietly, turning his head from side to side and looking all around him. “I know you just want me to say it so you can use it against me as many times as you want in the future.”

“So? If you’re so desperate for my company, you’d do it. Are you ready to shit all over your pride and admit that you want me to look for shitty pirate hats with you in a totally unironic way?” You really weren’t expecting him to do it. So when he does, it genuinely catches you off guard.

“Please.” He says it quickly that you almost don’t catch it.

“What?” You say, honestly confused and dumbfounded.

He shoves his hands into his pockets. “You heard me. I’m not saying it again. So there. You’re obligated to come with me now. That was your only condition before you agree to join me and I did it.”

You bite your lip and run your hand through your dark curls. Then, all at once, you sigh. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll take pity upon your poor soul and grant you my magnificent presence. Let’s just go.” You mutter, rolling your eyes and proceeding to walk out of the door to the outdoor part of the top deck. “Where do you want to look first?”

The blond shrugged. “The whole thing started about two hours ago so I’m guessing a few people actually participating in this has found at least most of the ones nearest around here. So, let’s go to the back of the ship where people are less likely to have reached yet and go from there.”

You have no objections to that so you let him lead the way there. Apparently, he’s got a map of the place in his phone to make sure the two of you don’t get completely lost.

“So…” He starts after a long while of simply walking in silence. You hoped he would stay silent the rest of the way but you suppose that was a futile thing to hope for. Especially from Strider.

“So?” You humour him.

“So, um… You and Terezi were a thing at some point, right?”

You shoot him a funny look as the two of you walked down a corridor after leaving the top deck. “Strider, you’re really shitty at small talk, you know? What kind of fucking icebreaker is talking about your exes? That’s like, an unlockable topic when you’re at _least_ at level three of friendship. Which you aren’t. You’re literally at level negative ten right now with me.”

He rolls his eyes at you, something you assessed with the way he moves his head. You’ve gotten really good at it because he does that a lot around you. “Negative levels aren’t a thing, Karkat.”

“Well, they are with me. It’s my fucking system. Deal with it.”

“Are you going to answer my question or not?”

“What part of my little speech did you not interpret my refusal to answer your shit question?” You huffed. But after a few beats of silence you decide to answer him anyway. “Fuck. Fine. Yeah, me and Pyrope were a thing. Well, not _really_ a thing. Like. An almost thing? I don’t fucking know, it’s not like we ever made it official or anything.”

He raised an eyebrow at you. “What exactly does that even fuckin mean, man? You two were pretty fucking lovey dovey near the end of last year.”

“Well, it’s not like we ever talked about it. We never officially decided that we were girlfriend and boyfriend. It’s just… One day she tells me that I was a great friend but that that’s all I'll ever be to her. Never stopped us from being close but we weren’t like- we weren’t as close to each other again after that. I mean, fuck, we never even _kissed_ during that time. It was just a whole bunch of almosts but she always backed off when we got too close.” You’re gesturing wildly at this point, remember the frustration of those months in your life.

“That’s rough. I definitely thought the two of you were a thing. Terezi has been cagey about it when I asked and I didn’t really have a chance to ask you before now.”

“Why the sudden interest in what my relationship with Terezi was anyway?”

Another shrug. This boy sure does shrug a lot, like, holy shit. “I was just curious. What, is curiosity a crime now? Are you the curiosity police, Kitkat? Sleuthing for the next murdered cat by the infamous curiosity killer?”

You scoff. “Sure. Curiosity. That’s all there is to it. I totally believe you.”

“I was just curious. Plus, is it really so wrong to want to know what happened after me and Rezi broke up?”

You bite your lip. “Right. Forgot that the two of you were actually a thing. I mean, I guess I can’t even call her my ex since there’s a chance that we were never even a thing, to begin with and I just imagined all of it like the stupid, desperate fool that I am. Just Karkat’s hallucinations from wearing romantic tinted glasses too damn long that it started to literally rot his brain and mimic the effects of a person who’s been on cocaine for six literal years.”

“You’re weird, Karkat.” The statement makes you snap your attention to him. You’re probably wearing an offended expression right now. “I mean, you’re weird in the way that you literally blow the biggest bluff of your own capabilities and then consequently pop that motherfucker by being the most insecure person there is at the same time. You’re as quick to over exaggerate your abilities as you are quick to self-deprecate and kick yourself down the proverbial staircase of life. You’re a walking oxymoron, man.”

You let that sink in for a moment. Apparently, Strider listens enough to your shitty rants to at least observe that about you, which is more credit than you gave him. You think about how to respond to that when he points to the library.

“Let’s try checking in there first. We’re nearly at the back of the ship anyway. We can work our back backwards from there.” You nod and follow him inside.

The library wasn’t particularly impressive or anything. It was a regular library with the exception of having a high ceiling that depicted a fantasy scene in its dome shape. Lounge chairs and bean bag seats were scattered around the open space available after every couple aisles of bookcases.

The two of you split up to search the library. The librarian watched the two of you in mild amusement as you looked under chairs and tables for shitty pirate hats.

After a while of searching, you’ve found a total of seven of the pirate hats hidden under desks and chairs and sticking between books. You checked the time and found that it was already two in the afternoon and you’ve spent a total of two hours here already. Okay well, you might’ve actually gotten distracted by a couple of books and stayed around looking at the synopsis of a couple of them. Along with the seven pirate hats you found, you managed to check out three books as well.

When you look for Dave, you find him standing around one of the aisles. When you approach and skimmed a few of the titles on the shelf that he was looking at, you realize that he was looking at _poetry_.

“What are you looking at?” He took a startled step back from you, slamming the thick leather-bound book in his hands. You raise a skeptical eyebrow at him.

“Are you ready to go?” He replies with a question of his own as he shoves the book at the top shelf where you have no hope of ever reaching without assistance.

You nod silently, still eyeing him suspiciously.

“Good. How many did you find? I got five." He tells you, pulling out his loot from his pockets.

“I got seven.” You tell him. “Strider, do you like poetry?” You pressed right afterwards.

But he simply walks past you. “C’mon bro we’ve still got a few more hours before sundown. Then we can start bright and early tomorrow morning.”

His insistence in refusing to answer you gives you a hint that yes, he probably has a guilty pleasure for poetry. It actually makes sense if he likes rapping so much since it has a lot to do with rhyming and beat. But you didn’t expect him to enjoy the classical type of rhyming schemes.

You let him get away this once and simply follow him out of the library with your books in hand.

The next three hours you spend with him are spent checking out Solarium, another lounge, and the lobby of a laser tag establishment. In the end, you found a total of twenty-two shitty paper pirate hats.

The two of you talking about mindless things, each conversation bleeding into another topic naturally. It’s strange, having a normal conversation with Strider. There were still snarks and insults hurled at each other but there are also moments of just genuine conversation and getting to know one another and relating to each other. And even though Dave talks in complicated metaphors and strange made-up idioms, along with most of his speech being laced with various pop culture references (both popular and obscure as fuck)  and too many innuendos relating to dicks, there is some genuine conversations made between the two of you. You can’t really say you know any more about him than before aside from finding out that he may or may not have a fondness for classical poetry. But they’re the kind of conversations you would normally have with a friend. Stupid and meaningless talks about everything and anything at all.

At the end of the day, you find that you actually enjoyed the day quite a bit. And that Strider isn’t as much of a jerk face you’ve pinned him as for the last three years of knowing him. Why it took this long and this specific cruise to finally get the two of you to spend time with each other, you have no idea. But you feel a sense of contentedness either way.

Before going to bed, you text your father about your stay so far in the cruise, like he has requested you to. You have a short chat with him before spending the rest of your night watching shitty romcoms in the television in your room. Sometime between movies, you had gone out to have dinner with Feferi, Eridan, Vriska, Terezi, and John when they asked if you wanted to tag along.

After coming back to your cabin around midnight, you easily slip into some warm pyjamas and drift off to sleep.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

“So you’re telling me, that at some point, animals evolved to become ghosts at the end of their miserable lives and that somehow benefitted them?” You listened to Strider talk while you shovelled coleslaw into your mouth. John pouted.

“I mean, animals wouldn’t have ghosts because they don’t have a living consciousness like us!” John continued to insist, taking a break from eating his breakfast burger to debate with Dave.

Currently, the three of you are spending your morning in the brightly coloured breakfast lounge arguing about the existence of ghosts.

“So, why would there be cases of people saying there are ghost dogs and cats but not ghost ants? What’s the fucking difference between them when neither species has a consciousness like us either?” Dave countered, pointing his fork at the blue-eyed boy.

“That’s not- Argh!” John lets out a growl of frustration. You snickered. “C’mon, Karkat! You haven’t said a word about this whole thing since it started. Back me up here?”

“I haven’t said a word precisely because I don’t want to be involved so don’t go dragging me into this festering pile of shit the two of you dug yourselves in.”

“Nah man, you gotta pick a side now. Do you believe in ghosts or not? Are you a shitfish, Karkat?” Dave smirked, kicking your leg under the table. You glared at him and kicked him back hard enough to make the table rumble. John simply eyes the both of you with a raised eyebrow.

“Here’s a third option:” You grit between your teeth when he continues to pester you under the table by kicking your leg. “I. Don’t. Give a. Flying fuck.”

“Oh my god, you are a shitfish. John, look at this, Karkat’s a fucking shitfish.”

“I am not a shitfish! I don’t even fucking know what that means!”

John slammed his hand down on the table to stop the table from shaking so much when your legs are waging war against Dave’s underneath it. “Guys! Will the two of you stop flirting under the table while I’m here?!”

That successfully gets the two of you to stop your aggressive kicking and stare wide-eyed at John.

“We’re not-” You both start at the same time, in complete sync with one another. You turn to stare at Strider and he returns your gaze. Both of your eyes flick back and forth from one another then back to John.

Who’s now resolutely smirking. He crosses his arms. “At least that got the two of you to shut the fuck up.”

You ignore the burn in your cheeks.

After that, the three of you lapse into silence, finishing your respective breakfasts. Afterward, John stands up and declares that he’s going to find Gamzee to continue the scavenger hunt and boasts about the fact that they found thirty-nine shitty pirate hats so far.

“Don’t try to murder each other when I’m gone!” He tells the two of you while he walks backwards from the table. You roll your eyes.

And then, it’s just you and Strider left. You finish off the last of your coleslaw and wash it down with fresh cold water. Dave kicks you under the table and makes you almost choke on your drink.

“Will you fucking stop it? I’d like not to die from drowning on a glass of water in the middle of the sea, thanks.”

He snickered, pushing his empty plate away from himself. “So. What’s on our agenda for today, Captain Vantas?”

You raise an eyebrow at him. “Who said that the agreement we agreed on yesterday lasts to today?”

He groans, slumping back on his seat. “Goddamn it, Vantas. Do I have to bribe you with another please to get you to hang out with me again?”

It’s your turn to snicker. “No. I just need you to answer a question for me and you can annoy me the rest of the day with your meaningless blabber while we find shitty pirate hats like preschoolers at a play park.”

“Shoot.” He says with a shrug.

“Were you reading poetry at the library we went at yesterday?”

Success. He turns a light shade of pink around the cheeks and turns his head away from you ever so slightly. “No, it was a sports manual on how to play hopscotch. What the fuck did it look like to you, Vantas?” He replies, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Why do you hide it? Poetry is pretty fucking great, honestly. And it’s not like anyone’s gonna criticize your masculinity for liking it.”

“Nope. Not answering. You said one question and I answered that question. You gotta tag along with me now. You promised.”

You raised your eyebrow at him once more. “You do know that I can just go back on my word here, right? I’m not gonna lose anything, I’m the one with all the power in this situation, Strider.”

“Fuck you, Vantas. I call abuse of power. I’m gonna sue your ass for abuse of power.”

You cross your arms. “Strider, you can’t sue a dictator with complete power over everything.”

“Terezi can.”

You paused at that. Then, you nod. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re actually pretty on point on that one.”

“So, are you going to grace me with your godly presence while we look for shitty pirate hats?”

You sighed, standing up from your chair and making it screech as you do so. “Fine. I did say one question and you did answer so. Let’s go.”

He smiled and for some reason, it catches you off guard. “Great. Let’s go, gotta get in my daily steps.”

He stands up and strolls out of the breakfast lounge and you follow after him, your mind feeling strangely sluggish and slow the more you thought about it.

Then it hits you.

It’s the first time you’ve seen him smile with his teeth visible. He usually just gives you a quirk at the corner of his lips, barely a change in his expression. You’ve never actually him smile at you genuinely like that.

You try and push the realization back. Strider’s human, of course, he has the capability to smile like one from time to time. It’s just he chooses to keep his expression blank most of the time, that’s the only reason it’s surprisingly. You’re sure he smiles like that all the time around other people he’s close with. It’s not a big deal.

He talks your ear off while the two of you continued to search around the ship. And before you know it, time has passed you by completely with you being aware of it.

By the end of the day, the two of you have collected a total of forty-one pirate hats. The two of you head back to the top deck to hand your findings to the people present at the same place where the boxes were yesterday. A couple of people, around twenty to thirty people, were roaming nearby, handing their own findings to the people in charge of counting them.

They have a clipboard with papers filled with empty columns on them where they get your names and the number of pirate hats you collected. They count it in front of you to make sure you’re telling the truth about the right amount.

The two of you stick around, watching the sunset outside the ship through the floor to ceiling windows at the sides of the room. You sit in comfortable silence with him until the staff calls the attention of the people inside the room to finally crown the winner.

The winner actually turns out to be Aradia and this other eighteen-year-old black girl with short dreads. Apparently, they were Peterpan and Tinkerbell respectively. They garnered a total of seventy pirate hats and were awarded medals that proclaimed them as ‘Booty Hunters’. Dave was actually upset that he didn’t get it because he found the title of booty hunter quite hilarious and very ‘ironic’. Of course, he would.

Aradia offered that the two of them take turns carrying it around and Strider was contented with that arrangement.

The night slowly winds down and after having dinner with the rest of your group, the two of you decided to head back to your suites early for the night. It was only seven in the evening but you’ve had enough roaming around for the day (since it’s literally the only thing you did the whole day anyway).

As you’re entering your cabin, Strider stops you. “Hey…”

You raise an expectant eyebrow at him. He fidgets for a moment before shrugging. “Thanks for hanging out with me.”

And before you can give a reply of any kind, he’s inside his room and locking the door behind him.

It makes you pause, staring at the dark red wood door, the scent of sea salt filling your nose.

And then, you do the same and enter your room, closing the door behind you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh guys I'm super excited for this fic. At the date this was posted, I have 14 chapters written.
> 
> And ooooooh boy do stuff get going in a few chapters. Hope you guys stick along for the ride!


	5. Playing Matchmaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 - Cartagena, Colombia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha what even is sleep
> 
> Also, I kept Eridan's quirk in his speech because somehow it makes it easier for me to imagine his voice when I'm reading. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Also, also, sorry for the short chapter, the next one is gonna be pretty short too.

Roxy had knocked incessantly at all of your doors at six in the morning. To be fair, she did tell all of you to sleep early last night because you’re all apparently going to be leaving early.

One by one, each of you stepped out of your bedrooms. You had changed into fitted jeans and a plain maroon v neck with a useless breast pocket. You slipped on your usually ratty black sneakers and followed the group out to grab breakfast.

Your four chaperones decided to have a fancy breakfast at this upscale restaurant for all of you. They had apparently reserved a large table last night for this specific morning. You had all sat around to eat breakfast and strangely enough, Eridan takes a seat to your right while Kanaya takes the other to your left. You think you glimpse Strider glance your way before sitting somewhere near the head of the table with Jake and Jade.

“Um, I knoww this is going to sound wweird, but… I need your help.” Eridan starts up as soon as you’re both seated. You raise an eyebrow at him as he fidgets, adjusting his glasses on his face.

“I feel like I already know where this is going.” You mutter as you watched him nervously glance up across the table at the group of girls sitting opposite of the two of you.

He lets out a heavy sigh. “Wwe’re goin out to Cartagena for today and I’ve been tryin ta find an… Opportunity. And I think this is the one.”

You simply hum in acknowledgement, telling him to go on. “Wwell… I wwas hopin on askin out Fef-"

“About damn time.”

He glares at you and you give him a smirk. “Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted… I wwas plannin on askin her out but like, I… I have no idea howw to fuckin do romantic shit.”

“So. You want my advice on what to do?” You ask him straightforwardly, watching him play with the origami napkin on his plate.

“Yeah. Basically. You’re like, the fuckin lovve expert of the group, like- you fuckin helped Kanaya get it on wwith Rose, so.”

Not completely true, but you do like to think you helped the two of them get together. It was near freshman year when Kanaya wouldn’t stop fussing about her teenage crush on Rose Lalonde. So you’ve taken it upon yourself to give a push to the two of them by inviting them both out to a friendly dinner on a weekend. It was a fancy restaurant too and you had gotten Lalonde to agree to pay for shit when she found out Kanaya would join the two of you as well.

Long story short, you didn’t attend said dinner and pulled some bullshit excuse out of your ass to satisfy Lalonde. Not that you needed to do much of that, she was plenty satisfied that night. You’d like to think you’re the one who helped one of your best friends get laid even if she’ll never admit it in a million years. But you’ve given plenty of relationship advice to your stupid friends over the years that you’d like to think you’re a reliable source of help.

Like that disaster of a relationship between John and Vriska at the third semester of sophomore year. You told John that coping with breakups with various dairy products and late night marathoning of Nic Cage movies where it reminds him of memories of that time he made out with his ex is not a healthy way of coping. It’s not your fault if they don’t take your advice and fall ass backwards on their various relationships. The least you can say is that you fucking tried.

You clap your hands together and intertwine them on the table like some serious businessman at a meeting. “Alright. What exactly do you have fucking planned so I can tear it to shreds and throw it out the window like confetti at a kid’s birthday party.”

He rolls his eyes at you. “Wwell, um… You see, the problem is that I _don’t_ have a plan. I wwas kinda hopin you’d help me out in that department. Just suddenly blurting it out seems kinda wrong and wwouldn’t help me in gettin outside of the friendzone. I wwanna make sure I at least have a fightin chance before I inevvitably kill our friendship.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose. “Alright. Fuck, you’re really making me work on this, aren’t you?”

“Are you gonna help or not?”

“Yes, of course shit-for-brains, I’m gonna help. Might as well before you drown yourself in utter embarrassment.”

He gives you a faint smile, a rarity for Eridan fucking Ampora. “Thanks, Kar.”

The menus finally come and you each make your order. You get yourself a normal chicken with mashed potato and fries meal while you continue to talk Eridan through basic romance tactics.

By the end of breakfast, you’ve got a solid plan on your hands. You tell him you’ll hover nearby without being intrusive to see his progress the rest of the day.

It’s around seven when the ship stops at the Cartagena port and various other passengers leave the ship to check out the sights available. Dirk and Roxy had worked on a schedule for you guys and the day’s activities before you all even boarded the boat. The day ends at three in the afternoon where the cruise ship is set to leave for its next destination.

The first stop was Ciudad Amurallada. It’s a ‘walled’ city at the heart of Cartagena. Your group had agreed to meet in the plaza after a few hours of roaming around. You had all split up into four groups, each one with a leading chaperone.

You had decided to stick around with Dirk, who was leading you, Feferi, Eridan, and Dave. You keep a close eye on Eridan while you walk beside Dave and Dirk, the two chatting. You mostly tune them out and try to listen in on what Eridan and Feferi are talking about behind you.

So far so good. He’s chatting with her about the sights and telling her about the history of the place and the two of them seem to be enjoying themselves. Once you’re sure Eridan isn’t fucking up and stumbling over his shit, you let yourself enjoy the walk around the city. Occasionally, you go into a store and pick out little trinkets and souvenirs.

Feferi got a bunch of brightly coloured necklaces and bracelets and she convinced Eridan to get a similarly brightly coloured brim hat. Dave got a plastic ring with a giant fake gem for ~ironic~ purposes. You simply picked out a magnet. You plan on collecting as much as you can to decorate the fridge at home. Your father would love it.

The city itself was brightly coloured, many of the buildings having colours that popped. Deep ocean blue, bright scarlet red, eye-catching summery yellow. Each building has its quirks and it’s a pretty scenery to walk by. The locals were also interesting, their clothing unlike what you’d usually see back in Florida or even in Houston. But it seems that they don’t care much for you tourists. They probably get them often.

The sun was hot but it wasn’t scorchingly so, more like a warm blanket that surrounded your whole body. A humid breeze passes by you too and you really get a tropical feeling out of the whole thing. It makes you smile more than you usually would.

Occasionally, Dave would snap a photo of the place (he brought a fancy looking camera with him), and sometimes, he would snap photos of you and your friends. Most of the time though, he would make you the subject of his photos and you would constantly try to cover your face. He makes a throwaway remark about how this is probably the most he’s seen you smile in all the three years you’ve known each other. You make sure to scowl every time he points the camera at you from there on.

There was a time, you had arrived near the ruins with the walls around the city, where Feferi had tugged on Eridan and snapped a photo of the two of them. Feferi placed a kiss on his cheek and the dumbfounded expression on Eridan’s face was endearing. It made you smile.

You only spent about two to three hours around the city before Dirk gets you all to walk back to the plaza to meet back up with the others. And then, you’re all off to your next destination.

This time, you all stuck together when visiting Castillo De San Filipe Barajas. It’s an old castle with grey and black walls that overlooks the ocean.

The only downside to visiting the old castle was the fact that it was stuffy inside. It made you and the rest of your group walk around sluggishly a.s you passed by its brick corridors. There were a lot of snapping cameras and a lot of enthusiastic posing. You’re already imagining the hours you’ll spend tonight checking out everyone’s snapchat stories.

At some point, while you’re all walking around the outside of the castle, Dave walks beside you.

“So, what’s the deal with Eridan and Feferi?” He asks you casually.

“What in the ever-loving fuck do you mean?” You decide to play dumb. He snorts.

“You’ve been eyeing the two of them like a fucking hawk. You’re not exactly as subtle as you’d like to think, Vantas. Actually, what you consider as subtle is the equivalent of driving face first into a tree while sober.”

You roll your eyes, glancing back at the two. They’re leaning against one of the walls, looking at god knows what in Feferi’s phone. It’s probably just pictures though.

“Fine.” You sigh. “Eridan is trying to work up the courage to ask Feferi out.” You tell him bluntly.

The fair-haired male smirks, like you, always expected him to. “What are you, a matchmaker?”

“For your fucking information, I’m the one that helped Kanaya get laid.” You tell, pushing him away from you because he was in your space and it’s too fucking hot to have someone else’s body heat radiating so near you. “Plus, I’m not a complete asshole. I don’t actually want our friend group to fall apart over some shitty romantic drama like a clichéd high school coming of age story.”

“Really? I couldn’t have guessed that.” You shove him again just for the sake of it. “So, what? Why’re you hovering around them like a protective mama bird? Because dude, that’s literally what you remind me of the whole time while we were walking around back at Ciudad.”

“I’m just making sure he doesn’t fuck up and end up ruining the rest of the day for him and Feferi by prematurely confessing his feelings.”

He shrugged. “So you are a protective mama bird looking after her young on its first date with the cute next tree neighbour, Sally?”

You shove him again, hard this time. You laugh as he stumbles to the side and _almost_ loses his balance, hugging his precious camera close to his chest.

The two of you continue a banter after that just as your group was wrapping up the tour of the castle.

The next and last destination is Playa Blanca. You all arrive there by twelve at noon and you’re all starving for lunch. You all pick a picnic table outside a restaurant and eat the local delicacies while enjoying the shade.

The beach is tranquil to look at, it’s bright blue waves lapping against blindingly white sand hypnotic. A few other tourists are around too, enjoying the beach in all its glory. You had seen Eridan take Feferi for a walk along the shore as soon as they were done eating and you assume he’s gonna finally do it. You don’t follow them because that would just be creepy. Plus, he’ll tell you how it went on your way back.

Sadly, you don’t stay very long there. Your group spend a good hour enjoying the sun and the cool water on your feet after eating before you all have to pack up again. It’s a forty-five minute boat ride back to the Cartagena port.

Your group gets there just in time, boarding the ship again with thirty minutes to spare. Eridan tells you how it went on your walk back to your cabins.

It went as well as it could’ve.

He had admitted to stumbling over his words with as much grace as a fish out of water. And although Feferi appreciates the confession and his feelings for her, she sadly can’t return them. She had explained that she and Eridan have just known each other for too long (they were childhood friends) that she sees him almost as a brother than anything else. She says she can’t imagine dating someone she considers as family.

Rough. Not just friendzoned, he got familyzoned. You console Eridan and tell him that there are other fish in the sea. He snorts at that and you think you lifted up his mood even a little bit.

You take a good shower because the hot day had left you all sweaty and sticky. Afterwards, you texted your dad about your adventures and sent him a photo of the souvenir magnet you got for him. You plan on collecting one from each place you go to on this trip.

Once all is said and done, you go to bed.

You dream of fairy lights glittering as they hung on cold and unforgiving metal walls. You dream of a tight single bed with card suits decorating the sheets. You dream of a warm body that runs hotter than your own (you don't know why that's a surprise to you) and glowing red eyes in the dark.

But in the dream, you don't feel afraid of those red eyes. They make you feel safe instead.

And although you'll only vaguely remember these dreams when you wake up in the morning, the feelings they instill in you lingers.

 


	6. Oh, Your Voice - I Can Listen To It All Day! But That's Something I'll Never Admit To Your Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 - Panama Canal, Panama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bc I'm nice and the last chapter was short I'm updating again. And bc this one doesn't involve any coding either and is also short so. Here it is.

The next day after touring through Cartagena was spent in relative peacefulness.

You had gone out to breakfast with Rose and Kanaya at ten that morning and spent some good fun talks with your two favourite lesbians. But after that, you had simply spent the day walking around and admiring the place. You also took the time to check out everyone’s stories from yesterday and smile at the memories made.

Jade’s were lots of selfies of her and with a couple of friends. Sometimes with Nepeta, sometimes with Aradia. But it seems Vriska was dead set on photobombing most of it because you see her in the background on most of them. Until she was eventually yanked to have a photo taken up close with Jade’s cheek squishing her own. That’s one’s probably your favourite with how ridiculous they both looked. The weirdly pleased expression on Vriska’s face was also something different from the usual.

John’s were mostly incomprehensible with most of it having his thumb or finger somewhere on the screen. Or sometimes it’s just plain blurry. You suppose that’s probably because he and Tavros were roughhousing most of the time during that trip.

Rose’s were, you guessed it, mostly of her and Kanaya. Hers had a more refined look to it and one of them was even a recreation of this one photographer’s set of photos while on a roundabout trip around the world with his girlfriend. It was of Kanaya’s back, holding onto Rose’s hand as she tugged her along somewhere, the background showcasing the Castillo De San Filipe Barajas on the outside of it before you all went in.

Vriska’s snapchat was of her and Terezi doing all sorts of shit together. Actually, hers and Terezi’s snapchats were basically identical, just different perspectives of whatever shit they were getting up to.

Feferi’s was full of her and Eridan. There was this one group photo she took at Playa Blanca under the shade of palm trees when she charmed one of the other tourists into taking the picture for her. You save that one.

Dave’s were scenic photos, and with the quality of it, it wouldn’t have been hard to believe that they were taken by a professional. There wasn’t a lot though, and you guess that’s because most of the photos he did take was probably in his camera. A quick check on his instagram told you that he uploaded the best of them there.

One, in particular, catches your attention. It’s one of his more popular ones with over ten k likes (he’s got like, fifty fucking thousand followers on instragram).

And it’s of you.

It’s one you don’t remember him taking, probably because you’ve got your back turned to him. But with the angle he took it at, it made it look like the sun was shining all around your head, a sharp contrast against your black hair. Everything was almost perfectly symmetrical with you being right smack dab in the middle of it. The vibrantly coloured buildings and the blurred motion of the crowd around you only helped enhance the photo, always bringing your attention back to the main subject of the picture.

You.

It takes your breath away and you find yourself saving the photo into your camera roll.

The rest of the snapchat stories were typical. Of food, of each other, of themselves, of a friend doing something ridiculous. It’s endearing and you love all of your friends.

After a while though, you’ve finally seen most of it though. There are gonna be thousands of more photos taken and the sheer amount of it makes you laugh.

The ship finally made its way to it’s next location though and soon, you find yourself at the railings in front of your cabin door. The sky is clouded today, but not so much that it makes everything gloomy. It was still bright and vibrant outside.

The ship is cruising through the Panama Canal, a pretty narrow passageway in relation to the cruise ship.

All around you were greens and blues and everything was just so pretty and beautiful.

You had taken the book you got from the library and continued reading while leaning against the railing. It was quiet and peaceful, the perfect place for reading. You’ve always liked reading while outdoors. The fresh scent of nature and the warm glow of the sun somehow helped enhance your reading experience.

You were so engrossed in your reading that you didn’t even notice when a blond haired male had taken perch beside you. You only notice when you feel eyes on you and you realize that he’s been staring at you as you read.

“What the fuck do you want, asshole?” You’re quick to snap, lowering your book away from covering your vision.

He hummed in reply. “Nothing. You just look really into that book of yours. What’s it about?”

An insult was at the tip of your mouth. Something like, “why the fuck would you care, bulgemuncher?” or just straight up telling him to “fuck off". But you hesitate. He looks genuinely interested in what you have to say and it gets you to think twice about your reply.

You heave a sigh. “It’s a love story, as you would’ve guessed.”

“And what’s it about? Like, what’s the plot?”

“It’s about a time traveller’s wife. It’s pretty fucking obvious from the title.” You lift the book to show him the cover. “Basically, there’s this guy that continually has time slips- he randomly time travels to some random place at some random time. And he ends up meeting his future wife’s younger self this way. They become best friends because he continues to time travel in different points in her life, popping in and out. So like, when she does finally meet him, the version of him before he even time travels to meet her younger self, she’s already in love with him. And it goes on from there and the difficulty they have forming a steady relationship when the guy would randomly disappear. It’s a pretty interesting read.”

He makes another humming noise and nods his head slowly. “Which part of the book are you in?”

“I’m actually pretty near the end of it now. They keep trying for a baby but because of time shenanigans, she keeps having a miscarriage. Until they try one last time before the guy secretly has a vasectomy without letting his wife know and she magically carries the baby to full term. I’m on the part where he meets his teenage daughter in the future and he finds out she can time travel too, but she has more control over it.” You tell him, a strange feeling of self-consciousness overcoming your senses.

Again, he nodded. He looks out at the scenery, resting his chin on his arms as he leaned on the railings. You continue to read your book, silence settling between the two of you.

And then, he suddenly asks you something you’d never expect in a hundred years.

“Can you read it out loud to me?”

You’re so startled that it literally doesn’t register in your mind. “I’m sorry, but  _ what? _ ”

He turns his head back towards you and you can see your own bewildered and confused expression in his aviators. “Can you like… Read it out loud to me? I mean, you don’t have to, but it sounds pretty interesting.”

You bite your lip and look at the page you’re currently in. Then, you look back at him. “Fine.”

He scoots closer to you a bit and you begin to read from last where you left off.


	7. Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 - At Sea  
> Day 7 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. Guys. Youtube is down. I don't have anything to procrastinate writing with. So you guys get a chapter update.
> 
> I'm hype tho, I'm like 75% finished with the fic. Anyone wanna guess how many chapters I have so far and what my current word count is.

Why does a cruise ship need two different pools? This is a question that continues to perplex you. The idea of a body of water on top of another bigger body of water is confusing enough.

You ponder this like you ponder the question of what is life. At the moment, you’re currently just chilling by the pool and staring up at the high rise ceiling of the said second pool, floating on your back, uninterrupted. Of course, that all ends as quickly as you’ve achieved it.

Someone tugs at your leg from under the water and you yelp loud enough to echo around the place while flailing and trying not to fucking drown. Jade emerges from under the water, bright green goggles over her face. She’s laughing at you.

“That’s what you get from not swimming and just floating around like a dead body, Vantas!” She crowed smugly, crossing her arms. You manage to get your feet on the floor (you’re not very far into the pool. Actually, it’s pretty shallow where you’re at but you’re short as shit so the water still goes up to your chest while tippy-toeing on the floor) and scowl at Harley.

“It’s not like it was my fuckin choice to be here anyway. I can do whatever the shit I feel like doing, Harley. You can’t tell me what to do.”

She just continues on smirking at you when you suddenly feel pressure on your shoulders and before you know it, you’re being submerged underwater. You sputter and cough when you finally remerge and glare at the offender who happens to be Terezi (how she’s able to swim like a seeing person would is another unsolvable mystery of life). She swims over to Jade and gives her a high five.

“You’re being a wet blanket again, Vantas! You should come and join us up on the slides.” Terezi grins maniacally at you, pointing up at the tall fuschia coloured slide that just out of the building before looping around and ending back inside the pool.

“Actually, this isn’t a suggestion. You’re definitely coming up with us on that thing!” Jade declares and before you can swim away, she’s got your wrist and is pulling you towards shallower waters to get out of the pool. Terezi follows her actions and grabs your whole arm, helping haul your ass out of the pool. The struggle is futile.

The two girls drag you away to the metallic spiral staircase that leads up to the giant fucking roller coaster slide. At the foot of the staircase is Strider with Rose and Kanaya seemingly holding him hostage as well.

Just. These fucking girls man. Why are they your friends?

“Oh shit, they caught you as well? We’re fuckin doomed then.” Dave blabbers on as soon as you’re close enough to hear him. You grimace.

You hear protests behind you and you realize that Aradia and Feferi have also caught Sollux and is literally dragging him by his legs while he’s clawing at the tiled floor of the pool. You can’t hold back the laugh that bubbled out from you.

“Oh my god, they even got Captor. What the fuck is this. Is this some girl cult where you just kidnap a bunch of dudes to do your evil bidding.”

Rose flicks Dave on the forehead. You realize he’s still got his fucking sunglasses on, what the fuck. “Yes, Dave, we’re a group of girls only satan cultists and going down the slide is our evil end goal for you all.”

The girls push you up the stairs and you all go without much of a struggle. You’re all dripping wet and climbing up a metal staircase that goes up to a pretty deadly height. One fucking slip up can quite literally end up with one of your heads cracked wide open on the tile floor. You've all resigned to your fate.

“This is bullshit.” You hear Sollux muttering behind you again and again while Aradia and Feferi giggle.

Once you do finally get to the top, the girls fall in line in front of the slide. There’s a light going from red to green on the side and water is sliding down the slide to make sure you slide down without getting burnt on the way down.

Jade and Terezi were eager to go first and so they went first. Aradia and Feferi had to drag Captor to the slide and force him to sit down so all three of them went after. You eye the two lesbians blocking the path back down the stairs.

“Please, the two of you go first. We can wait.” Rose tells the two of you with that infuriating smug smile of hers.

“I’m a gentleman, Rose. Please, ladies first.” Dave counters, taking a step aside and gesturing to the slide with his hand.

“We insist.” Kanaya pipes up and you suddenly really hate her. She’s giving you a pointed look and yep. You’re definitely gonna need to have a talk with her later.

“We’re not getting out of this are we,” Dave says more as a statement than anything else.

“Of course you can get of this, dear brother. And that way is to go down the slide with Mr. Vantas.” Rose tuts and you flip her off.

“Fuck you, Lalonde. Fuck you too, Maryam.” You huff and plop yourself down on the edge of the slide.

“The two of you should go at the same time. For safety reasons.” Rose adds and you hear Dave groan.

“We both know that’s bullshit, Rose.”

You can just imagine Rose giving her brother a challenging look and Dave ultimately losing because you hear him step up behind you.

Those witches.

Dave awkwardly positions himself behind you with either leg beside you. He loosely wraps his arms around your torso. “Sorry ‘bout this man.” He mutters into your ear and why are your lungs constricting? This isn’t supposed to happen what the fuck, _breathe you fucking giant dundering idiot._

“Whatever, let’s just get this shit over with.” You murmur back at him and grab his arms to more securely wrap his arms around you. You eye the light at the side of the slide.

When the light turns green, you push the two of you forward an inch before you’re fucking sliding down the giant slide together.

You both end up screaming loudly as you rush down the slide and you can feel the way his arms wrap tightly around you, your back pressing flush against his back at an angle.

The experience only lasts a couple of seconds before the two of you fall into the pool in a tangle of limbs. You see his shades float up to the surface, but when you emerge from the water, he’s got them on again. What a fucking douchebag.

But then he smiles crookedly at you and you can’t stop your lips from doing the same. And then, the two of you are laughing and although you’d never admit it out loud, that was hella fun to do.

It’s not later on that day that you come to another realization.

That was the first time you’ve had any prolonged contact with the fair-haired male. It’s always just been little shoves here and there, but nothing even remotely close to what the two of you did at the slide.

You resolutely ignore what this realization is doing to your traitorous body.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Lesbian No.1 (Kan)  
  
 WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, KANAYA?  
  
What The Fuck Is What Karkat?  
  
I Believe I Am Going To Need You To Be More Specific  
  
 DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME, MARYAM.  
  
 YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

I Am Not A Psychic Karkat

 I MEAN BACK AT THE POOL WITH STRIDER AND LALONDE.  
 WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE TWO OF YOU CORNERING US AT THE SLIDE?  
  
  
Ohhhhhh That One

Let Me Just Say

That Had Been Roses Idea

And To Be Fair I Kind Of Agree With Her On This Matter

 WHAT?  
  
You And Strider Would Look Cute Together  
  
 WHOA WHOA WHOA.  
  
 WHAT THE FUCK?  
  
 ME AND STRIDER ARE JUST FRIENDS. HOLY SHIT WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THAT IDEA FROM? WE LITERALLY JUST STARTED HANGING OUT FOR REAL RECENTLY.  
  
 YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND CAN'T JUST GO SETTING US UP JUST BECAUSE WE 'LOOK GOOD TOGETHER'.  
  
I Am Simply Giving You An Early Push In The Right Direction  
  
Like What You Have Done With Me In The Past  
  
 FIRST OF ALL, THIS SHIT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM YOU AND ROSE BECAUSE I DO NOT HARBOUR ANY KIND OF EMOTION OTHER THAN PURE HATRED AND MILD PLATONIC FEELINGS FOR STRIDER.  
  
I'M NOT GEEKING OUT TO YOU ABOUT EVERY TEXT I GET FROM HIM LIKE YOU DID WITH LALONDE.

Dont Tell Me I Didnt Tell You Later On Then

 YOU TELLING ME "I TOLD YOU SO" WILL NEVER HAPPEN BECAUSE ME AND STRIDER WILL NEVER BECOME A THING.  
  
Whatever You Say Karkat

 I'M BEING SERIOUS HERE, KANAYA. STOP PLAYING MATCHMAKER IT DOESN'T SUIT YOU.  
  
   
 ...  
  
 KANAYA?  
  
 KANAYA????  
  
 GODDAMN IT YOU CAN'T JUST DISAPPEAR ON ME LIKE THIS YOU LIPSTICK LESBIAN.  
 I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS.  
  
  
 KINDLY TELL ROSE TO GO FUCK HERSELF FROM ME.  
  
She Says "Fuck You Too"  
  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The second stop on your cruise is at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The ship arrived at port at seven and it’s set to depart at seven in the evening. This meant you had a bit more time to tour around the place compared to when you touched down in Cartagena.

Still, Roxy was knocking on your doors fairly early that morning to grab breakfast. You left the ship at eight to start yet another day of adventures.

The day was warm and you could really feel the full extent of summer then. Your group’s first stop had been at Marino del Pacífico Park, a small aquarium place.

And by small, you mean _small_. For an aquarium, at least.

Your group had split up once again to tour around the whole place. There weren’t very many people and the attractions weren’t outstanding or anything brilliant or new. But it had still been a cool place to stroll around with. Along with being a short reprieve from the sun’s rays. There weren’t a lot of other people there too and sometimes it felt like you were the only group that was actually there in the first place.

Although a cool part of the place was that they had starfishes you were actually allowed to touch and Dave had snapped a photo of you poking one of them in the water. Your hands had been busy at the time so you couldn’t hide your face like you usually do when he points the camera at you. You had felt strangely embarrassed by the whole thing. You just weren’t used to other people taking photos of you.

Your group didn’t stay there for very long. About an hour or a little under it. You had all met up again at the small kid's park at the place. You left the place feeling somewhat sad for it. It’s clear that the establishment is slowly failing but they still try their best to keep it up kept.

At least it looked like Feferi thoroughly enjoyed the place. Although she did spout off about animal captivity every now and again the whole trip there.

The next stop was at Paseo del los Turistas, a long beachside boulevard. Thankfully, the wind picked up while your group walked leisurely around the place, making the heat just a bit more bearable. There were restaurants and small shops set up all over the place. You find out that these small shops are called _kioscos_.

Once again, everyone went ahead got themselves souvenirs while there. Rose had convinced Kanaya to get a beautiful green tye dye sundress from one of the stalls and in turn, Kanaya got Rose a similarly styled dress only it was purple and white and covered in floral patterns. Jade and Nepeta had picked up cute little-stuffed animals. One was a scarlet macaw parrot and the other was a beady-eyed green turtle. Dave bought a gaudy pair of pineapple shaped shades and proceeded to wear it for the rest of the day ~ironically~. You had gotten another magnet to add to the collection. It shaped to be the red and white lighthouse at the boulevard.

Speaking of lighthouses, group had taken the time to each snap photos of each of you at the lighthouse. Once again, Feferi convinced another tourist to take the photo of the whole group in front of it. You asked her to send you the group picture right afterwards.

Afterwards, you had all tried out a dessert concoction from one of the restaurants you stopped by to have lunch in. It was called ‘Churchill’ and Eridan had all told you that it was named after some british dude who always ordered it and just happened to look like the prime minister of britain of the same name.

The cool dessert was too sweet for your taste but the girls seemed to really like it.

The last stop was at the San Luis Canopy Tour. It had been booked for your group for some time now and it takes up the rest of the day.

Your group had walked through the forest and crossed many hanging bridges. Jade, Jake, and Aradia loved the place and talked all about how they would love to go on a real adventure through the jungle.

You had pulled on your sweater for the tour since it’s actually quite chilly with how high up you all are. The views were spectacular with lush greenery all around you everywhere you looked. Birds of prey swoop down every now and again and colourful butterflies surrounded the place. The hanging bridge was precarious looking but the view of the forest below was definitely an experience for you. And the music of the forest was relaxing to listen to. The humming of the leaves in the wind mixed with the high pitched bird songs sung to each other. It was beautiful.

Lots of pictures were taken, as expected.

After the long nature walk, your group had been led to a ziplining platform. Everyone was buzzing with excitement, especially Roxy. A couple were more wary of it like Sollux and Tavros.

The first one to go was Vriska, calling dibs on the first ride as soon as she found out you were going to go through the zip line. She had shouted “L8ER BITCHES!” when she was pushed after being securely tied around the zip line. Her voice echoed for far too long for your liking.

Terezi hopped on next, much to Roxy’s dismay. She literally cannot control her enthusiasm for the whole thing but she made a promise to herself to let the ‘kiddies’ go first. Following after Serket’s actions, Terezi loudly shouts “FUCK YEAH AMERICA!” while zipping through the forest.

This becomes a theme.

Jade goes on after Pyrope and screams “I’M QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE MOTHERFUCKERS!” The staff was raising an eyebrow at your group for all the curse words.

Roxy finally goes after Jade, screaming “VODKA MARTINIIIIIII!” Sollux just screams “BEES!” at the top of his lungs. Jane only shouted after a few seconds after takeoff, screaming, “THIS WAS A MISTAKE.” along with a chorus of “SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, _SHIT_.” John, predictively enough, screams, “WHO YOU GONNA CALL??!” You can hear him faintly shouting “GHOSTBUSTERS!” in the distance. Dave had strapped in with one hand on his shades and the other around the handle keeping him secure. And his catchphrase? “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” That motherfucker. Aradia simply shouts out a quote from one of her Indiana Jones movies. “FORTUNE AND GLORY KID! FORTUNE AND GLORRRRRYYYYY!”

“FUCK ALL OF YOU!” Ah. Your classic catchphrase. You added in a nice middle finger on your take off too.

You had zipped across the forest with blinding speed. All around you were just blurs of greens and you held on tightly to the handle securing you to the zipline. You were well aware of the fact that you kept screaming obscenities all the way through but you couldn’t care less about that. It felt like your stomach was bottoming out from under you and the adrenaline rush was intoxicating when you did finally reach the end.

Everybody on the other side of the platform had clapped at your return. And they clapped for every person right after you.

“Very nice screaming, Vantas.” Strider had commented as soon as you got off the zip line.

“Don’t piss me off, Strider. We’re a hundred feet above ground and it doesn’t take much effort from me to shove you off this fucking platform without remorse.” You quip back. He laughs at you.

And his laugh continues to ring in your head long after it’s gone.

After the zip line, you all went back down to the ground and went through the nature trail with a tour guide droning on about the wildlife of Costa Rica and other fun facts about the place. By the time you finished, it was already four in the afternoon.

Okay so, it didn’t last the rest of the day, so Roxy and Dirk had pulled shit out of their asses and took you all to one last place before getting back on the ship before seven.

You all went to Cathedral de Puntarenas. It’s an old Catholic church and your group took a few pictures around the place. Honestly, it was a good place to wind down and relax and just enjoy the scenery after the exhilarating ride through the ziplines earlier.

The interior was immaculately white, so much so that it actually almost looked a hospital to you. The structure was probably impressive if you knew anything about architecture. Which you don’t so it’s just about average to you.

There was a shaded park outside and you had gone off to sit on one of the benches to relax as the sun slowly sunk down behind you.

The mood was immediately killed when Strider sat down beside you though (that's what you keep telling yourself anyway).

The two of you sit around in silence and you appreciate his ability to shut up this once.

But a little conversation isn’t too bad either.

“Hey. Can I ask you a question? And no bullshitting, give me your honest thoughts.” He starts up, fiddling with the lenses of his camera. You nod and urge him on. “What do you think of the trip so far? Are you like… Enjoying everything?”

You paused to actually think about it. Then, you nod. “Yeah. It’s been really fun this past week. It’s been fun getting to spend all this time with our friends and seeing new sights and making memories. I’m… I’m really glad I came.”

You chance a glance at him and you see him smiling down at his camera. The same one that gave you pause before. Wide and unsarcastic.

“That’s good.” He simply tells you in return and the two of you lapse back into silence. The bristling leaves in the wind are the soft melody that fills the space between you and him.

“By the way,” You find yourself talking, staring at the empty playpark in front of you. “Thank you. For that photo you took? The really pretty one?”

He raises an eyebrow at you and you pull your phone out to show him. He visibly looks embarrassed all of a sudden. It’s kind of… Cute.

“Oh. That. Um. I just thought it looked like a really great shot and I just had to snap a picture of it. Sorry, I know you don’t like getting your picture taken and all…”

You wave a dismissive hand around. “It’s fine. I just. I don’t like getting photos taken of me because I look really ugly in most of them. But this one… I really like this one.” You tell him genuinely. Why you had the sudden urge to just tell him that, you have no idea. But you felt like it’s something you should tell him.

He nods. “Thanks. I’m… I’m glad you actually like it. And seriously dude, you’re hella photogenic. Kinda sad you don’t see yourself that way though. I’m glad I can make you see it at least a little bit with this photo.”

A warmth spreads throughout your chest at his words and you find yourself unable to look at him. You work to keep your breathing composed and pocket your phone back into your sweater.

“Thanks.” You tell him.

Eventually, it was time to go back to the ship. You arrive there around six thirty and have dinner with the others as the ship is moving out of port again.

At night, while you’re lying in bed with the lights turned off, you scroll through the day’s snapchat stories once more. It’s the same endearing pictures of your friends and you save a few of them on your phone.

Again, Dave’s snapchat story is mostly filled with beautiful scenery. Some filtered, some not. But beautiful all the same. You find yourself looking checking his instagram page again to see the photos he posted from his camera. Only a few new ones, the best ones, you know.

And yet again, one of them catches your attention. And it’s his most recent upload. About an hour ago. But it’s already got two k likes on it. 

And it’s of you again.

It’s from the San Luis Canopy Tour, when your group had been walking through the bridges. It’s a close up side profile of your face, arms leaning on the rope bridge with your chin resting on top of it. A vibrant blue butterfly hovers mere inches from your face and you’ve got a finger lifted up in its direction. You remember trying to coax it to land on your hand, but it had flown away as soon as you got too close for it’s comfort. You had been too occupied at the time to notice him taking a photo of you. The background was just splotches of blurred leaves and branches behind you, enhancing the photo and making the subject stand out.

You.

His words come back to you.

“ _You’re hella photogenic._ ”

“ _I’m glad I can make you see it at least a little bit with this photo._ ”

You save that one into your camera roll too.


	8. The Time Traveler's Wife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 & 9 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter update?! This shit short though so I'm sorry bout that.

After the day at Puntarenas, the ship is out at sea once more. It’ll be travelling at sea for two more days before arriving at the next destination.

For the time being, you’ve found solace in one of the solariums around the cruise ship. With the lack of events happening at the ship in the meantime, you spend most of your day reading under the warm glow of the sun. There’s a leather chair you’ve come to call your own at the corner of the solarium with a tall potted plant giving you a little shade from the sun.

You could spend hours there. And strangely enough, when Dave found you there, he had stayed around and continued to ask you read to him.

He sat beside you for hours, listening to you read to him. By the end of the day, you had finished the book you had told him about back when the boat was crossing through the Panama Canal. You had cried at the ending of it and he had made fun of you for being so emotionally attached to fictional stories and fictional characters. You told him to shut the fuck up and he laughed at you instead.

You then moved onto reading a new book with him once you’ve recovered from the ending of the previous book. You had felt a little embarrassed reading this particular book to him because it features a male and male relationship, but he had told you that it didn’t matter. “Love is love.” He had told you. Knowing his stance on same-sex relationships shouldn’t give you this much of a thrill, but it does.

The book had been called ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue’. The plot is set back in the eighteen hundreds and had caught your attention for the fact that the characters were also on a cruise through Europe.

Dave was unexpectedly attentive when you read to him. Sure, he’d make little sarcastic comments every now and again, but for the most part, he’s quiet and listens to your words. The two of you only separated when the sunset and it had become too dark in the solarium to continue reading.

He thanked you for reading to him and said that he’d like to continue it with you next time. So you refrained from continuing on your own and simply waited for the next time Dave wanted to hang out and have you read to him.

By the next day, you returned the first book you read to the library.

Stridouche (Dave)  
  
hey where are you right now?  
  
 I'M AT THE LIBRARY RETURNING THE BOOK WE FINISHED YESTERDAY.  
  
k  
  
stay there ill come and meet you there in a sec

 

 

 

He had then led you back to the same solarium as before and he got you to read to him again. The two of you manage to get halfway through the book before you finally call it quits at four. You both agreed that you needed to walk your limbs around after sitting around for more than five hours.

He had left to go tag along with John, Sollux, Gamzee, and Vriska to the arcade while you decided to spend the rest of the day inside your own cabin, watching romcoms available in their tv on demand.

By eight at night, after you had just gotten yourself a nice shower, there was a knock at your door. You were quick to throw on some sweatpants and a casual t-shirt and opened the door. You were surprised to find Dave at your doorstep, his laptop in one arm.

“Strider, what the fuck are you doing here?” You had asked with a deadpan expression, crossing your arms. Honestly, though, you didn’t have a problem with him visiting you. Why though is a complete mystery to you.

Until he tells you exactly why.

“I was wondering if you were up to watch some movies with me, man.” He stated casually, shrugging his shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal. You eye his laptop and he sees you do it. “I downloaded a few on my laptop. I can hook it up onto the tv via bluetooth so. Do you want to?”

You stare at him for a little while, trying to see if he was bullshitting you. He’s been strangely nice to you but then again, this could just be what being friends with him entails.

You don’t think too hard about it.

“Yeah, sure.” You say, taking a step aside to let him into your room. “Those movies you picked better not be fuckin trash, Strider. Or I will literally kick your ass out of my room.”

“Nah, dude. I have one, in particular, you’d probably be okay with watching.” He assures you as he takes a seat on the couch and sets up his laptop. You raise an eyebrow at him but take your place on the opposite side of the couch anyway.

He grabs the remote from you and fiddles with the controls on the tv for a bit before hooking up his laptop with it. A screen with various folders on it pop up, all of it untitled except for one that read ‘movie night specials’. He selects it with the remote.

The screen moves onto a similar one from before, only this one has video icons and various movie titles underneath them. Dave scrolls through them before stopping around the T section (it’s all arranged alphabetically). He selects one before the title can completely scroll through to let you know the title of it. You simply eye him sideways but his face stays neutrally blank.

The title screen pops up and the opening sequences start.

The Time Traveler’s Wife.

“Holy shit.” You mutter under your breath. “You got the movie version?”

A flicker of a smile appears on his face for a moment before it’s gone. “Yeah. I thought you’d like to see this one.”

You stare at him for longer than appropriate before you force your attention back to the tv. You… you really didn’t expect him to go to the trouble of downloading the movie adaptation of the book the two of you read. It’s… It’s a strangely sweet gesture coming from him.

But then again, he could be a secret sap to all of his other friends. You wouldn’t know since you did just recently become friends with him. But still, this whole setup was nice.

You had pulled your legs up on the couch and hugged your knees as you watched the movie. Dave stays silent the whole way through it and you’re glad for it.

The movie mostly stayed true to the book and you appreciate it. Seeing the scenes you imagined while reading unfold in front of your eyes was nice. It might’ve not had the same impact as it did reading the book, but by the end of it, you found yourself crying again.

He had laughed at you and you had tried to hit him over the head with a hardcover book you had on the coffee table.

But afterwards, he pats your shoulders comfortingly and the silence that settled between the two of you was a comfortable one.

“So, did you enjoy it?” He asks you after a while. You’re still sniffling but thank god you’re not outright sobbing anymore.

“Yes, maggot festering shit pile.” You tell him, standing up and gathering the tissues you have used and throwing it away into the nearest trash can.

“Well shit. Glad that I did something right for once. I’m giving myself a well-deserved pat on the back for this one.”

“Don’t let this get into your head, fuckass. God knows we don’t need you floating off to space with your bloated ego.”

He chuckles at that and begins gathering his things. “Really though. I had fun too. Watching your reactions was hilarious, man. I’ll make sure to bring a video camera next time so you can see how much of an overdramatic shithead you are for movies like this.”

You throw a throw pillow at him. “If you’re gonna keep talking shit, get out of my fucking room, Strider.”

“Alright, alright.” He throws his hands up in defeat before picking his laptop back up. “But seriously though, we should do this again sometime. I had fun.”

You snort. “We’ll see if you can behave long enough to earn you a second movie night. I’m not holding my breath though.”

“You’re full of shit, dude. I know you enjoyed it too.”

“In your fucking dreams.” You throw another pillow at him from where you're sitting comfortably on the couch. “Now get the fuck out. It’s late and we gotta leave early in the morning again tomorrow. I wanna get enough sleep so I can survive through the day without becoming a coffee zombie.”

It’s his turn to snort as he makes his way to your door. “Fine then. G’night, dipshit.”

“G’night, douchebag.” You call after him as he closes the door to your room. You’re left in the complete silence of your room.

After a while of staring blankly at the black television screen, contemplating what just happened, you finally get up and prepare your bed for sleep. Roxy texted you all to sleep early because she plans to wake you all up at eight in the morning.

With a sigh, you pull on the string of your bedside lamp and plunge your room into complete darkness. Sleep easily comes to you afterwards.

You dream of a cold metal surface under your fingers, smooth and black. You dream of a warm hand over your own and a body hovering behind you, guiding you. You dream of making music on an unfamiliar device (a turntable. You have no idea why you forgot what that is) and listening to soft tunes fill your ears.

When you wake up, all you’ll remember is the warmth on your hands and a strong sense of disorientation in your bed. Like this is not what you expected to wake up to.


	9. The Basics Of Attraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10 - Manta, Ecuador

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk what to say here guys. Thanks for the kudos and lovely comments tho! I'm just happy to share my writing and shit bc these two are like my ultimate otp. I love my bby bois <3<3<3

Just like Roxy had warned you, she’s banging down at your door at eight in the morning sharp.

And like routine for whenever you’re all leaving the ship while it’s docked at the port, you all go together to have lunch. This time though, Jane explains to your group that you won’t have to travel around so much. You’ll only be staying at one place until the ship has to leave to continue on its route.

You’ll all be spending about eleven to twelve hours at Santa Marianita. And so, she had gotten all of you to pack up extra clothes along with your swim trunks and swimsuits.

When you all get to the beach, you all take turns in the changing stalls available. Most of the guys were shirtless with only swim trunks on (only a few like you, Strider, Captor, and Nitram actually kept a shirt on) while the girls apparently chose today to be the day to wear their matching swimsuits. Only Roxy and Jane have differing swimsuits but the rest of your female friends had matching one piece on. In your honest opinion, they looked ridiculous and you’re a little embarrassed to be seen with them.

After all of you had changed, Roxy had happily announced that you’ll all be participating in learning how to  _ kitesurf _ . Dirk and Jake were pretty enthusiastic in explaining the schedule for the day and only Jane seemed reluctant to really try out the activity.

Your four chaperones went and led you to a building near the beach where you signed in to have your lessons started.

For the first few hours, the instructors had simply taught your group about safety precautions, basic knowledge and wind understanding, the different gears needed for kitesurfing, kite controls, and other important stuff to keep in mind before you actually go on the water.

They then taught you how to properly set up and inflate the kite and attach the bar you’ll be holding onto to when you kitesurf. And they continue to walk you through how to launch your kite properly and how to steer it. They tell you about the flying area, the different zones, and how to manage your kite properly. They showed you how to stop the kite from flying when you lose control of the bar and how to regain control. They also show you the uses of the quick release to get rid of the kite if you lose control so you can avoid accidents.

Afterwards, they give you time to try it out yourself and practice steering your kite in the wind on the land. Anytime anyone had trouble, all they had to do was flag down an instructor and they’ll be helped through the motions of starting up the kite. You had to flag down an instructor at least six times before you got yours into the wind properly.

All of you were all spread out across the beach to give you kites as much space as possible for each of you to practice maneuvering it. The instructors give you a while to get used to the motions of steering the bar in the direction you want it to go.

This whole process takes up the whole morning and before you know it, it's already twelve and it’s time for lunch. You all take a break from your lessons to eat some lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant.

Eating lunch doesn’t take long and before long, you’re back at the beach to do some more drills. The instructors explain to you how to get on your board and how to stand up when on your water and you all practice the similar motions of it on the ground.

Once the lessons are all done, you’re let go to have a try at kitesurfing for real this time. The instructors each give you a pack containing the bar and the kite along with a board to go with it.

Your friends excitedly get started on trying to hook up their kites and apply what they learned for the day. At some point, Nepeta comes up to you with a pout.

“Karkitty, can you help me attach the harness and the bars on the kite?” She asks you and you stare at her for a moment before looking down at the bar and harness in her hands.

Putting on the harness on yourself isn’t hard but you know there’s an ulterior motive to getting  _ you _ to help her put it on. And it involves getting close to her physically. You swallow thickly and take off your own harness and put your bar down on the sand.

“Uh- yeah, sure? I guess? I mean, it’s not really that hard so um, here let me show you.” You’re about to grab the harness from her hands and move around so you can attach it to her hips when Strider comes running up to you out of nowhere.

“Hey Kitkat, hey Nep. You need help there, Leijon?” Although he asks, he grabs the harness from you and goes behind Nepeta to adjust it around her waist. This was clearly not how she wanted things to happen but she tries her best to hide her disappointment. 

“Y’know, I could’ve fuckin done it myself, Strider.” You tell him, crossing your arms and looking unamused. You’re just saying this because you do kinda feel bad for Nepeta, it probably took courage for her to put her plan into action and actually go to you specifically for help.

Dave just shrugs. “It’s okay man. I’m just going around helping everybody. Here, what were you having trouble with, Nep?” He then grabs her wrist and pulls her along back to her own kite to help her set up. Guilt seizes your stomach when the blonde haired girl looks back at you with those wide moss green eyes of her.

You sighed and simply got back to trying to get your own self to set up.

It takes you a while to set up when Kanaya taps your shoulder from behind. “What?” You ask her, holding the bar, about to set it off. The green-eyed girl simply smiles and points out to the beach. You’re pretty near the shore, with your board just off to the side. You were planning on heading out and trying kitesurfing for real after a few test runs to make sure you’ve got the steering down.

The sun is blindingly bright and so you have to squint. But you easily notice what she wants you to see.

Off in the distance was Strider, in his board and kitesurfing. You see a couple of your other friends cruising along the water with their own kites set a sail to the air.

He doesn’t have his shades on. And he also doesn’t have a shirt on.

Your eyes are glued to him and a strange tingling feeling rises from the pit of your stomach. Even from here, you can see just how  _ good _ he looks with the wind sweeping his bleached blonde hair. 

You have no idea how long you’ve been staring, but you see him waving back at you with one hand. You look sidewards and see Kanaya waving back to him.

Then you notice that he’s heading back to shore and your heart skips a beat. “Kanaya, what the fuck was that for?”

She grins down at you. “What? I thought you’d appreciate the view. I know I did."

“What the fuck. Aren’t you lesbian?? Aren’t you only into girls???”

She turns up her nose at your statement. “Yes, I do prefer females, but that does not mean I can’t appreciate beauty when it makes itself known. Liking someone aesthetically isn’t the same as attraction, Karkat.”

You huff and cross your arms, watching Dave lower his bright red kite and come to a stop, falling backwards on his board once the wind stops pulling his weight upright. It doesn’t take long for him to swim your way and you make a conscious effort to keep your eyes above his neck.

“Hey, Kanaya. Hey, Kitkat. You guys planning on kitesurfing anytime soon?” He asks when he gets close enough, holding onto his board and bar with one hand, his kite trailing off behind him.

It’s your first time seeing him without his shades and you’re trying your best to hide your surprise at his bright, highly saturated red eyes. You swallow thickly and you find yourself in desperate need for some water.

“I’m waiting for Rose to get the hang of things. We planned on launching out together. She’s still having issues with steering and maneuvering though.” Kanaya replies when you fail to. Dave looks around the beach and spots his sister before smirking.

“Rose? Having issues? That’s something you don’t see every day.” He hums, eyes moving back to meet your own grey ones. “What about you, ‘Kat. You heading out for a spin on your board?”

“Of fucking course. What the fuck does it look like, shit stick? I was just about to go, actually.”

“Whoa, okay. No need to get overly defensive there, I was just asking.” You bite your lip and your eyes flicker down his body for a moment before meeting his eyes again.

Shit.

He doesn’t call you out on it though and you hope to god he actually didn’t notice that split second once over.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go now. I’ll see you fuckers out in the water.” You abruptly tell the two of them, grabbing your board and walking down the beach.

You stop when you think you’re a good distance away and slowly wade your way into the water. You sigh in relief with the cold salty sea water cools down your overheated body. You get your kite in the right direction and place your board in the water.

And then, you maneuver your kite to launch it and slip your feet into the board. And you’re actually kitesurfing! Finally!

It’s a strange feeling, standing up on the board with the wind pulling you across the water. It’s so easy to tilt your board and change the direction of your kite that it’s a little hard to get precise movements and fine control over everything. But you get the hang of it the more you spend on top of the board. You fall a couple of times here and there, but you make it back up again without too much difficulty.

Roxy calls your name when you pass her by and you wave to her for a moment before getting a firm grip back on your bar.

You spend however long enjoying the sun and the wind and the spray of seawater on you, but once you got the hang of things and you don’t have to mentally put an effort in moving, your mind starts to wonder.

Specifically back to Strider. In the split second, you did chance a look down at his exposed skin, you noticed thick, long white lines decorating his body. It’s pretty hard to miss even with just a second to look. They’re so obvious that your mind starts to wonder on how even got marks like those. It’ so strange and you find yourself actually  _ wanting  _ to know more about them- about Dave in general.

Okay, you will admit.

You’re a little attracted to the blond-haired bastard.

But that’s far as you’re willing to admit. You don’t have to do anything with what you’re feeling. It’ll leave sooner or later anyway.

After a while of kitesurfing, you decide to go back to land. Some of your friends have the same idea and you can already see the sun beginning its descent on the horizon. A quick check of your phone from your backpack in the sand tells you it’s already four in the afternoon.

The rest of your group eventually hand back the gear that came with the kitesurfing lessons. You spent the rest of the day playing around in the sand and on the beach before Roxy rounds you all up to go take a shower and change back into fresh clothes.

It’s six by the time you all finished and head back to the cruise ship.

Dinner is the same affair as any other day and before long, you’re all heading back to your respective cabins. It becomes a habit for you to spend your last hours looking at your phone.

First, you continue to update your father on your cruise activities and then you check your friends’ snapchat and instagram photos. This time, there weren’t very many photos since most of you spent the day getting wet.

You find yourself checking Dave’s account first every time.

And like you were expecting, there’s a new one of you.

This one is while you were kitesurfing. You’re pretty far away and you can barely see yourself but it’s the same black and grey kite you had used to kitesurf. This one wasn’t fancy or anything, but the fact that this is the third time he’s posted a pretty picture of you gets you all riled up.

You save that photo too and create a new album in your gallery.


	10. The Teenage Drama You Expected To Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 11 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate this chapter title. That's all I've got to say.
> 
> **Edit 10/17/18  
> I this this is a better title. Anything is better than 'Disco Disaster' actually =-=;;

It became a thing that just happened naturally between the two of you.

During the lazy days when the whole group is simply resting after a tiring day of being a tourist at another land, you would find yourself in the Solarium. Just like a few days ago, you and Dave planned to hang around each other again, with you quietly reading out loud to him.

The atmosphere was a soothing one. The stillness of everything, as if the two of you were the only ones occupying the world at that moment. The rhythmic soft sound of pages turning and the soft heat of the sun on your skin helping in settling an inner peace within yourself.

“Why do like me reading out loud to you?” You had asked him sometime during that day. He shifts in his seat on the couch right beside you, lifting his head from resting on his arms to give you his attention.

A shrug. “Dunno. I guess I like the sound of your voice? I mean, your voice has a different quality to it compared to your usual speaking voice or when you’re ranting. I didn’t expect it but listening to you can almost lull me to sleep, but not quite. It’s like…” He pauses, lips pursed, seemingly trying to string the right words in his head. “Like that calm state you’re in when you’re on the verge of sleep, but still awake enough to register the words and sounds around you like light vibrations under your skin.”

“That’s really oddly poetic, Strider.” You inform him and he flushes a light dusting of pink on his pale skin. He’s a little darker than when you first arrived on the ship, a little tanner, but still quite light skinned compared to you.

“Damn. Sorry for getting all sappy on you then.”

You raise an eyebrow, book still resting on your leg. “I never said it was a bad thing.”

You see him bite his lower lip for a second before letting go of a soft sigh. “Can you just like… Continue reading?”

“Why do you avoid talking about your softer side, Strider? The one that’s not a complete asshole who spouts shit out of his mouth like it’s his ass.” You ask him bluntly, closing the book and leaning on the arm of the chair you’re sitting at.

“I just don’t like talking about it, okay? It’s not exactly a known fact about me and I’d really rather not be defined by shit like that. That’s-” He abruptly stops himself, a low hiss escaping his mouth. His jaw clenches.

This only piques your interest more. “That’s what, Strider?” You press.

His brows knit together behind his shades. “Nothing. It’s nothing, okay? Can you just drop it already?”

“Fine. But let me tell you one thing before we continue our reading session.” He tilts his head slightly, interested. “Not one thing can define you as a person. You’re allowed to have dimensions, Dave. You can be an smug, too-cool-for-anything asshole, but still like things like poetry and other things that don’t always fit the image you want to uphold in front of people. You don’t have to hide it like it’s a sin to be ashamed of. It doesn’t take away from other sides of your personality. You’re allowed to be human and be more than just one thing.”

You watch him swallow thickly, adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. He rests his head on his arms and makes a quiet “mmmn” noise in acknowledgement of your words.

You open the book backup and brush your finger across the page until you find the paragraph you left off on. “We go on, down the gallery of bones, quiet but for the occasional rumbling, like a great giant shifting in his sleep…”

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Hello kitty (Nep)  
  
are mew ready fur some more pawsome partying karkitty??  
  
i heard theres a disco night happening at the atrium tonight!  
  
will mew be there?  
  
SURE I GUESS.  
  
JADE'S GONNA HAUL MY ASS THERE EVENTUALLY ANYWAY. MIGHT AS WELL JUST GET THERE BEFORE SHE BREAKS DOWN MY DOOR.  
  
thats great!  
  
ill see mew there then!

 

 

 

 

Another night of partying.

Not that you mind much, partying is just the definition of making the most out of life at your age. The wild youth, uninhibited and living life to its fullest by making stupid, impulsive decisions. Living in the moment. Carpe diem as some would say.

The more you thought about this, the more you realize that you’re not much of a party person. But you’ll endure if it means more fun times with your friends.

You had arrived at the atrium fairly early on that night, somewhere around seven to eight. And the party was already at full swing by then.

The atrium was plunged in darkness, strobing neon lights lighting up the place much like it had on the welcoming party on your first night aboard the ship. Except it’s coming from a giant disco hanging from the ceiling. You wonder for exactly three seconds how the hell they even got to attach it there. And this time, there was a live band playing and it wasn’t like the soft pulsing beats back then.

The music was blaringly loud, it makes your eardrums vibrate. And the atrium was more crowded than the last time the ship threw a party. That one felt more subdued compared to this. It gives you vibes of what it must be like at nightclubs.

How the hell are you gonna find your friends in here?

Hello kitty (nep)  
  
WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS AT?  
  
ground floor!  
  
were at one of the bar counters  
  
at least a few of us are i think  
  
i dont know where some of the others are though  
  
KAY. THANKS, NEP.

 

 

You weave through the people in the halls and make your way for the elevator. You manage to get into one of them and head for the ground floor.

Once you made it there, it takes a few more minutes of maneuvering through the crowd to find your friends. Thankfully, by this time, your eyes have adjusted to the dim lighting of the place and the wildly directionless movements of the strobe light.

Once you do find your friends though, you’re pretty horrified at what you find.

Your friends are crowded at one side of the bar counter, and the closer you get, the more the howls of laughter becomes evident. Along with the chanting of “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!”

Hell, you even see strangers standing nearby. Whatever the spectacle is at the bar couldn’t be good. And your gut instincts were correct.

The scene unfolding in front of you when you managed to push your way through the crowd is something you never fucking expected in a million years.

Rose I’ve-got-all-of-my-shit-together-and-I’m-here-to-show-you-how-you-can-get-your-own-shit-together-too-in-a-completely-snide-and-counterintuitive-way-like-the-condescending-bitch-that-I-am-but-pretend-not-to-be Lalonde is fucking chugging shot glass after shot glass of whatever the fuck.

Against her older sister, of all people.

What the actual fuck.

You quickly shift through the crowd to find Kanaya, but she’s nowhere to be seen. At least, not nearby. You tear yourself away from the crowd and go hunting for her, eventually finding her in a corner of the room, looking as anxious as she did back at her first date with Rose. You rush to her side.

“What the fuck happened?!” You shout over the loud music so she can hear you. She bites her lips anxiously and grabs your wrist before pulling you past the crowd and into one of the gender neutral bathrooms.

She closes the door behind her and drops your hand. “What the fuck is happening, Kanaya?” You repeat your question, tone softer this time. The loud basslines of the music outside is still audible but it’s simply a dulled pulsing sensation in your gut this time.

“I don’t know.” She tells you with a shaky breath, shoulders tense. “I don’t know.”

“What the fuck do you mean you don’t know?”

Kanaya shrugs, averting your gaze. “We got into a bit of a disagreement earlier in the night… It’s been a problem we’ve been struggling through for a little while but it got really bad and out of hand.”

You lean back against the counter and cross your arms, listening to her intently. “Go on…”

“God, this is so embarrassing to admit…” She mutters to herself, putting a hand over her face. “She… Rose had a few drinks while I was gone- I went to grab us some drinks- just water -but got lost in the crowd. Took awhile for me to get back to her and… I scolded her for drinking. She tells me to ‘calm down’ and that it was just two shots and nothing more, but I… I ended up telling her that addiction can start from just a few drinks and she got pissed at me and I made the mistake of mentioning her mom’s alcoholism and then she got _really mad_ then and told me to ‘stop micromanaging her every movement’.” She does air quotes at the last statement. “She told me to fuck off and I… I think I fucking drove her over the edge, Karkat. As if to prove me fucking wrong, or just to spite me, she starts up a drinking competition with her already tipsy sister who stupidly agrees to it. And I- It had the opposite effect I was going for when I scolded her and-and now I feel like it’s all my fault if I just didn’t fuck up so much-"

Kanaya was slowly panicking, wiping at her eyes, trying to be careful not to ruin or smudge her eyeliner but she was failing miserably at it. “Whoa, whoa, calm down, Maryam. Deep breaths for me. Deep breaths.” You tell her, putting both your hand firmly on her shoulders.

She takes your advice and takes slow shuddering breaths, tears freely falling from the corners of her eyes now. “Fuck. Fuck, I… I don’t know what to do. I feel like this is all my fucking fault. I mean, shit we’ve been having this issue with her feeling suffocated with how much I fuss over her and… And I feel like I finally pushed her over the edge. That this is all my fuckibg fault and I feel… I feel so fucking embarrassed and ashamed right now, spilling my guts to you and-"

You shush her and continue to tell her to take deep breaths. She leans against the door and covers her face with her hands, staring down at the ground. You’ve never seen Kanaya break down like this before and you have the sudden urge to do something you’ll definitely regret to Rose for making Kanaya cry like this. “First of all, why the fuck would you ever feel embarrassed and ashamed for telling me this? You know I’m always here to help you, right? You’re allowed to come to me for help.” You tell her softly.

She lets out a strangled sob, before taking deep breaths again to gain enough composure to even form words. “It’s just… It’s just, everyone sees us like we’re a perfect couple and we’ve got all of our shit figured out. I feel like… I feel like I’m somehow letting the others down by _not_ being perfect and having issues. I… I feel like I have expectations to live up to, you know? And I’m utterly failing at them right now.”

“First of all, bullshit.” You pat her shoulders, giving her all of your attention. “You don’t have to live up to any fucking expectation, much less care about what others see you as in your relationship. That shit should be private and stay between the two of you only. Second of all… No relationship is ever perfect, Kanaya. You’re human, Rose is human, we’re all fucking stupid hairless apes called humans and we fuck up all the time. You’re allowed to have problems and people shouldn’t be meddling and judging you for not being perfect enough because of it. You don’t have to keep this all to yourself, Kanaya. I’m here and so is the rest of our friends. It’s okay to not be perfect, it’s not like we’ll burn you at the stakes for failing to be the picture perfect lesbian couple we all perceived you to be. It’s okay to ask for help from us.”

Kanaya slowly relaxes under your touch after you speak. “And as for your situation with Rose…” You continue on. “I understand your concerns with her, we’ve all seen the effects it had on her mother. Thank god she’s recovering now, but I understand why you would have issues with Rose doing the same, even if it’s just a little alcohol. But you probably made her feel like she’s got so little control that she’ll end up just like her mother and to prove that she isn’t, she takes agency by taking control of her ability to consume said alcohol, ironically doing the exact opposite of what she hopes to achieve with that shitty move. My point is, I get why she did what she did, but it’s not necessarily your fault. But maybe, you should work on communicating to her better that you only do what you do because you care deeply about her. Make her understand that you’re not trying to control her, you just want what’s best for her. But you should also work on letting Rose make decisions on her own. Let her make mistakes and learn from them. Be there for her when she makes them and help her become a better person, instead of trying to shield her altogether from making those mistakes. She doesn’t constantly need you sheltering her.”

She sniffles and brings her hand down from covering her face, wiping at a few stray tears and nodding. But at least she’s calmed down now. “Thank you, Karkat. Really, thank you so much for always being there and being the voice of reason when I’m being stupid.”

You smile fondly at her. “Hey, I’m just returning the favour. You do the same for me, it’s only right I help you out too, in whatever way you may need it.”

She returns the small little smile. You let go of her and she rolls her shoulders, standing up a little straighter like the classy motherfucker that she is.

“You ready to go out there and knock some sense into your girlfriend’s thick skull?” You ask her playfully. She takes a deep breath before nodding.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I am.” She opens the door out of the bathroom and you’re both subjected to the loud noises of the party once again.

This time though, she walks purposefully across the crowd, and you follow after her. You approach Rose first and spin her seat around to face you.

She frowns at you through half lidded eyes and you grab the shot glass from her hands. “Hey-" She protests, but before she can make a full sentence, you grab her upper arm and pull her off the table.

“Drinking contest is finished! You all can fuck right off now!” You tell the crowd that had gathered around them as Kanaya helps Rose stand up right.

You glance over at Roxy who’s passed out on the counter and move to ask the assistance of Nepeta and Equius to pick up the supposed adult in the situation. Equius easily carried Roxy bridal style and you go back to help Kanaya walk Rose back up to the elevators with the other three trailing behind you.

Rose slurs nonsensical words that you and Kanaya both ignore at the moment. You walk her all the way back to your cabins and Kanaya opens the door to Rose’s bedroom. None of you have a key to Roxy’s bedroom so you set her inside there as well.

Time to message some important people.

Anime shades guy (Dirk)  
  
CAN YOU COME BACK TO THE CABINS ASAP?  
  
Why?  
  
Did something happen?  
  
JUST COME HERE AS SOON AS YOU CAN. I CAN EXPLAIN SHIT LATER.  
Alright, I'm on my way.

 

Stridouche (Dave)  
  
CAN YOU MAKE IT BACK TO THE CABINS AS SOON AS YOU CAN?  
  
whats up is there something happening at the cabins  
  
oh shit is someone getting laid tonight  
  
is this going to involve more than two people  
  
are we starting an orgy  
  
are you inviting me to an orgy karkat  
  
THIS IS ACTUALLY SOME SERIOUS SHIT, STRIDER. SO IF YOU CAN TAKE YOUR BULLSHIT AND THROW IT OVERBOARD, THAT WOULD NICE.  
  
whoa did something actually happen?  
  
I'LL EXPLAIN WHEN YOU AND DIRK GET HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t take long for Dirk to get there at all. You had gotten Nepeta and Equius to go fetch a lot of water bottles and some ibuprofen for when these two passed out girls do finally wake up. You and Kanaya stayed around watching over the girls and kept the door open for when the others you texted arrived.

“Shit.” Is the singular word that leaves the first Strider’s mouth upon seeing the state of the two. He rushes inside to check on Roxy first before moving onto Rose.

Dave was close behind and enters the room, quite literally dropping the water bottle he was carrying when he stepped inside the suite. “Whoa, what the fuck happened?”

“Yeah, how the hell did this happen?” Dirk mirrors Dave’s concerns as he sits beside Roxy, petting her hair and brushing away strands of hair from her face. Dave approaches the rest of you on the bed.

You look towards Kanaya and she gives you a nod of approval. “Rose and Kanaya got into a fight, and to spite her girlfriend, Rose decided it would be a good idea to fucking drink herself to death in a drinking competition with Roxy.” You explained. “Roxy stupidly fuckin agreed, but I wouldn’t blame her too harshly. She was already drunk when Rose asked so she was probably just uninhibited when she agreed to it.”

Dirk purses his lips and pulls out his phone. “Fucking shit. Jake was supposed to look after Roxy during parties like this. Where the hell is he.” He mutters more to himself than anyone else.

Dave takes a seat beside Rose and he seemed to be in deep thought. You rise up from your perch at the foot of the bed and make your way to leave the room. “I’ll… Leave you guys for a bit.” You say as you reach for the door.

“Karkat, wait.” You turn around and see Dirk faintly smiling at you. “Thanks for contacting us and getting the Lalondes out of trouble.”

You return the gesture and smile lightly back at him too. “It’s no problem. Just looking out for my friends.” You tell him as you stepped out of the room, closing the door behind you.

As soon as you close the door, Equius and Nepeta round the corner with cold water bottles in hand and a bottle of ibuprofen and aspirin.

“Are they okay?” Nepeta iq quick to approach you, concern displayed on her face.

You sigh, bringing your hand up your face and dragging it down. “Yeah. They’re alright for now, they’re sleeping. They’re gonna have one hell of a hangover in the morning though. But they should be fine.”

You watch Nepeta tighten her grip around the bottle of pills and the water bottle. “I’m sorry.” She squeaks out meekly.

“What for? You didn’t do anything, Nepeta.”

She releases a heavy sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. “And that’s exactly the problem. I didn’t do anything when I should’ve. I should’ve known, I should’ve gotten Rose to stop, I was _there_. But I didn’t do jack shit.”

You’re a little startled to hear Nepeta swear openly and you see Equius purse his lips in a disapproving manner but is polite enough not to barge in on your conversation with her.

“It’s fine, Nepeta. I doubt Rose would’ve let you stop her before she got herself too drunk to even know what’s happening around her anyway.” You pat her on the shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, alright?”

Nepeta suddenly leans over to close the distance between you and wraps her arms around your torso. “I’m still sorry.” She mutters into your clothes and you awkwardly wrap your arms around her.

The door suddenly opens and you see a flash of irritation on Dave’s face when he sees you with Nepeta, but it quickly passes.

Nepeta lifts her head from your chest before blushing and reluctantly letting go of you. She hands Dave the water bottle and the painkillers. “Here. These should help them in the morning.”

Dave takes the items and gives a curt nod to the short girl. “Thanks.” He says quietly, meeting your gaze through the shades for a moment before turning around and closing the door behind him again.

Nepeta runs a hand through her messy blonde hair. “Well, this ruins the rest of the night. I hope our other friends are having fun though…” She mutters before looking over at you. “What do you plan to do next, Karkitty?”

A quick check into your phone tells you that it’s already ten at night. You shrug. “I guess I’ll go back to my own cabin, watch a movie or something before going to bed.” You tell her. She nods.

“Alright. I guess I’ll see you in the morning. Good night, Karkitty.” She tells you before hesitating and biting her lip, looking down. “Sweet dreams.” She mutters before quickly turning around and heading for her own door with Equius right behind her.

You think you see him glance back at you once to glare at you.

You do what you told Nepeta you’d do. You watch another romcom and when the clock hits twelve, you get yourself ready for sleep.

Even if the day was mostly boring, the night was eventful enough to make you feel exhausted. You sink into your pillows and close your eyes, sleep easily claiming you.

This time, you dream of iron on your tongue, the vast starless void above your head. You dream of feeling hurt but that was not your main concern. You dream of whether he was okay, whether he’s had better luck than you did (you’re even sure who ‘he’ is). You hope he does.

When you wake up in the morning, you feel a stinging feeling in your stomach but you’re not sure why.


	11. A Change Of Pace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 12 - At Sea  
> Day 13 &14 - Callao, Peru

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've reached a block in my writing :') I'm 80% to 85% finished with the whole fic tho and I've got a lot of prewritten chapters to post so you guys can still get an update. I promise I will fuckin finish this fic tho. I'm so fucking to finishing I can't abandon it now.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy your reading~

As expected, both girls woke up with an early appointment with the porcelain toilet.

Kanaya and Jane had stayed in Rose’s room, where she and Roxy slept for the night. In the morning, while Kanaya had breakfast with you, she recounts the rest of the events that happened when you left the room.

She and Jane had taken to sleeping in the couches so they would be present to help the girls when they do finally wake up hungover. And hungover they were.

Kanaya tells you that Rose had woken up at three in the morning and had barfed her guts out. You commend her for being a great girlfriend and holding back Rose’s hair while she expelled the contents of her stomach into the toilet. She flicks you in the forehead and tells you not to be cheeky. You flick her back and tell her you were being honest.

The rest of your breakfast was spent in the company of Maryam until she had to go back to attend to Rose.

You were hoping to continue reading with Strider, much like you had yesterday, but you don’t see him all day. You don’t see Rose or Roxy either the rest of the day. So you spent most of the day alone.

You had set up a movie marathon for you and basically stayed in bed the whole day.

You try and ignore the fact that you’re a little disappointed in not being able to read to Dave or read the book at all, for the rest of the day.

For the first time, the day actually seemed to move at a snail’s pace. But eventually, it ends without anything else significant happening.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The ship arrived at Callao, Peru and this time, instead of Roxy’s rambunctious knocking and loud cheery voice waking the rest of your crew up, it was a patient knock at your door at nine in the morning. Dirk’s the one to gather your group together to head out for the day’s activities.

At breakfast, you don’t see Rose, Roxy, or Kanaya. Jane tells you that they’re taking the day off to continue resting and Kanaya insisted on staying behind to be at Rose’s side. You vaguely remember her telling you last night that she planned to talk things out with her properly. You hope everything goes well for her.

The group is still fairly lively, although not at the same levels it reached in the past two weeks. Everyone had been worried about the two when the story of Rose’s drunken tale got out.

But anyway, your first stop for the day was at Callao Monumental. The place was known for its neighbourhood walls being covered by the beautiful street art of all sorts. You and your friends had split up once again to check out the whole place and set up a meeting spot for when you’re all finished touring around the place.

Dave had dragged you along the place, snapping photos of the place enthusiastically. It makes you smile, seeing him excited about something like this. Shit, this is probably the first time you’ve seen him this excited about anything at all.

“What got you into photography in the first place?” You ask him while the two of you were walking down a street, with Dave fiddling with his camera, adjusting filters and other complicated camera stuff.

“Dunno, really. When I was younger, I had this Polaroid- and I’d always snap pictures of shit all over my room just to see it come out. Then I started experimenting and making cool different effects- playing with light, going on different angles, and fucking around with shadows. Something about it was just so entertaining to me and seeing the results the way you want it to turn out just felt satisfying.”

“Mm. How’d you get into poetry, then?”

He pauses for a moment, glancing your way. You see the gears in his head shift, debating whether to tell you or not. Then, he shrugs. “I… I was always into words. The rhythm it held for every syllable in a sentence and the way it flows when music is added. Lyrics add meaning behind the melody and… I guess I just found that kinda magical? Fuck if I know. Words are just fascinating in general. It can convey so much in so little and convey so little in so many, depending on how you use it. I guess I like rap because it’s a faster pace form of poetry, and a bit more vulgar in general. There’s something so… inherently raw and honest and personal about poetry. I don’t like sharing my interest in it because it just… It feels makes me feel vulnerable, somehow. If that makes any sense at all.”

You stare at him a bit wide-eyed. You didn’t expect such an honest reply from Dave of all people. The person who hides the meaning of his words over layers and layers of irony and insists that in the end, it actually doesn’t mean anything at all. _Convey so little with so many_. _Convey so much with so little_.

_“Can you read it out loud to me?”_

“ _Are you like… Enjoying everything?”_

_“That’s good.”_

_“You’re hella photogenic.”_

_…_

_“You’re reading too much into this.”_

_“Stop assigning meaning when there is none."_

Which is it, fuckass? Does any of this mean anything at all? Or are you simply letting your head get away from you again?

“Anyway.” He speaks up when you realized you had been quiet for a little bit now. “I just really like a constant beat with a rhythmic tune. That’s really all there is to it.”

“That’s… I really didn’t expect that from you, Strider. I’m kinda impressed that you do have some dimension to your shitty personality.”

“Hey, you’re the one who told me that I’m allowed to have different sides to my personality, jackass.”

“That’s true.” You nod. “So, how come you trust me with telling this kind of shit then? I kinda assumed I would be the last person you’d want to have known about something this close to you.”

“Well, you already found out that I like poetry and you _didn’t_ make fun of me for it. What’s the fuckin harm in letting you know why I like it in the first place? You’re not the type of person to spread around rumours and shit anyway.”

You raise an eyebrow at him. “How do you know that? We’ve only been talking to each other for a solid two weeks.”

Dave gives you a devious smirk that shouldn’t be making your pulse skip. “I’m not a complete oblivious dumbass, Vantas. In the three years, I’ve known you, I’ve picked on the fact that you’re all talk and no bark. You can make threats like no other, but you’d never go through any of them, dude. You don’t actually want to hurt anyone. Especially when people trust you with something that’s meaningful to them.”

Are you really that transparent? It makes your cheeks heat up. It’s like he knows you so well already just by observing you but you’ve never paid attention to him to pick up on anything substantial out of him aside from being a massive prick. This is the second correct observation he’s made about your personality despite not spending too much time actually talking to you in the past three years.

But to you, you’re only just discovering new things about him. You have a lot of catching up to do.

“Anyway, what about you, dude? How did you get into being so absorbed in romance and love story cliches? So much so that our group literally unofficially crowned you as the person to go to for relationship advice.”

That snaps your train of thought and you turn to look at him. “Huh? Oh, um…” You look up to the sky as you thought about it. “Well… I guess I was first fascinated with it when I saw the affection my mom and dad had for each other. My mom- she was infertile, so she couldn’t have any kids of her own. And my dad, he’d always wanted kids, he wanted a lot of them actually. He could’ve left to find someone else who can give him what he wanted, and at some point, my mom apparently insisted it on him because she felt really bad about her inability to become a mother. She went through a long bout of depression because of it before they got me. I remember when he first told me their story. He told her, “love and marriage isn’t about reproduction or your ability to make a child. I made a vow to stay with you through everything in life and I plan to keep that it that way.” It was so cheesy, but… I found it really magical. Just… The sheer commitment to love someone when they’re at their most unlovable state is so fucking rare. The idea of it all was kinda intoxicating for my little kid brain. I’ve always wanted something like what they had ever since then.”

You find yourself wistfully remembering that memory. You were eight when you first asked about love. And you’ve been in love with the concept ever since then.

You’re startled out of your reverie when he touches your shoulder. He quickly pulls away, looking embarrassed and moves his hand to rub the back of his neck. “Sorry, uh… I don’t know why I did that.”

You bite your lip. You have the strongest urge to just get close to him, to shorten the distance. But you take a step away from him instead. “It’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting it.”

He nods and the two of you resume your walking in silence. You don’t know what to say and it seems like neither does he. So both of you say nothing and continue quietly touring the beautiful urban art the place has to offer.

Your group meets up at the set location and you all move to your next destination on the schedule.

The next place your group visits is the Real Felipe Fortress and this time, you’ve got a tour guide to tour you around the place.

This one’s bigger compared to the one you visited in Cartagena and had a lot more to offer in terms of sights to see. There were period accurate armour, weapons and lots of display canons. Eridan seemed to really enjoy listening to the history lesson the tour guide was giving.

You spend a good few hours there taking more touristy photos before moving on with your day.

The next stop was at a restaurant called El Mirador. You had all gotten a taste of some local Peruvian food and left the establishment quite stuffed.

The enthusiasm the group started with continued to drop though. The sunny day had slowly been overtaken by some dark clouds and the rest of the afternoon was relatively cloudy. Still, you’re glad that it didn’t rain. You hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow either.

Your group walked around the neighbourhood of Chucuito for a little while, taking pictures of the brightly coloured buildings and buying a few more souvenirs.

There had been a plan to stay at the Costa Verde beach but with the cloudy atmosphere, you had all unanimously agreed that taking a dip in the water would be a bad idea. The water would be far too cold to handle with the heat of the sun to accompany it.

So you had all simply walked around the beach and boardwalk, admiring the seas from afar. Everything felt a lot quieter and somber for some reason.

Eventually, though, your group moves on after spending the afternoon there. Jane, Dirk, and Jake lead you all to the marina around five to take a short sunset cruise around the Lima Bay by boat. Thankfully, the clouds seemed to have receded at this point and the sunset was clearly visible as you rode out into the sea. 

You watched the various sights from the boat pass by in peaceful silence. The sunset was a strong orangish pink colour and bathed everything in heavy shades of amber and gold against solid black silhouettes.

It was a relatively quiet way to end the day with. The whole sunset cruise only lasted about two and a half hours and you’re all back at the ship around seven to eight.

You eat dinner as usual and visit Rose’s room to recount the whole day to both her and Kanaya. Rose does seem pretty guilty for getting hammered and needing to take a break from touring. Even more so with the fact that Kanaya stayed with her because of it. But you assure both of them that you didn’t do very much that day. The whole mood of the trip had been dampened by the cloudy day.

After a couple of hours in the girl’s company, you return back to your cabin and text your father about the day you’ve had. You don’t bother checking the snap stories and instagram photos, you’re sure there aren’t as many today compared to other days.

Although, you can’t stop your curiosity from getting the best of you. You check just one instagram account.

Dave’s.

You tell yourself that you’re not disappointed when you see that he hasn’t uploaded anything new aside from a few scenic views and a couple graffitis from Callao Monumental that morning.

You’re not disappointed he didn’t post another pretty photo of you. You’re really not.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The next day had been the same. Patient knocks at nine in the morning until you opened the door. Dirk greets you and tells you to meet at the breakfast lounge, you’re leaving for the day’s activities soon after. He also tells you to make sure to bring an extra change of clothes.

This time, Rose and Roxy seemed to be in good enough health to join you for the day once again. Dirk takes the lead though and he brings you to your first destination.

It was the Mar Ardento Excuriones, and when you got there around ten, you were briefed with what’s to come for your morning after checking in. The whole group was buzzing with excitement, much like the previous days on the cruise ship. The sun was also out in full force this time and helped with the mood of the whole thing.

The whole excursion lasts about two and a half hours, and you were all told of the places you’d visit and other information regarding safety during the trip. You were also forewarned about the status of the sea waters and that seasickness may occur while on the speedboat. Everyone had laughed at the comical way Eridan’s face paled at the mention of seasickness.

By ten thirty, your tour guide, a lovely fellow named Julio, had gotten all of you set up with life vests and aboard the speedboat. And then, you’re setting out to sea.

The speedboat passes through other islands like San Lorenzo and Isla Fronto to get to Islas Palomino. Just like you were warned about, the waters were a little rough around San Lorenzo and Isla Fronto and poor Eridan did end up seasick. He threw up over the boat and you remember seeing your tour guide Julio actually cringe. You had seen some cool species of birds along the way though.

Eventually, you get to where you need to go. The place stunk badly, and your tour guide informs you that it’s just the guano- the accumulated excrement of seabirds, seals, and sea lions. He tells you that it’s a good fertilizer for the island. That didn’t stop your group from whining about it though. You think you see Eridan expel his breakfast all over the seas again at some point.

The speedboat got up close and personal with the islands and you all saw some wildlife along the shores. Jade, Feferi, Gamzee and Tavros fawned over the cute little penguins lazing about in the sun. Dave had taken the opportunity to finally have animals as the subject of his photos.

The main event though, and the reason for the whole excursion in the first place, was getting to swim with the sea lions.

Once the boat slowed to a stop, you were all offered wetsuits to wear for the occasion but most of your friends turned them down. Jane, Kanaya, and Rose took the wetsuits though. Probably a wise decision on their part, the waters were fucking cold. Otherwise, you just got life jackets to keep you afloat on the water.

The tour guide hopped into the waters first and right after comes Roxy with a loud whoop. He then encouraged the others to come and join in and it wasn’t long before you’re all in the water.

The sea lions came closer to the boat and to your group out of curiosity. Julio the tour guide dared you to put your feet up and let the sea lions sniff your toes. You thought it was stupid, but it was hilarious to see Sollux try it and immediately freak the fuck out when one of the sea lions got too close. You and Aradia tease him about it incessantly.

A lot of the sea lions seem to flock around Gamzee though and he was more than happy to ‘chill with them motherfuckin sea lion bros’. Dave, who had opted to stay on the boat to take pictures of you guys (a noble sacrifice) snapped a photo of Gamzee getting licked in the face by one of the sea lions. It was adorable and you asked him to send you the photo afterwards.

But even though the blond stayed on the boat, one of the sea lions came close enough to the boat for Dave to pet the thing for a while. It made your chest ache in the strangest fashion and you found the whole thing endearing. For once, you wished you had the camera to capture the moment. But your eyes and memory will have to do.

You only got to stay around for a few more minutes though and eventually, you all had to jump back on the boat. The rest of the ride was spent touring around the small islands and doing some more bird watching before the boat made its way back to port.

Your group got changed back into cleaner clothes and you were off to have lunch for the day before continuing onto more tourist adventures.

Your next destination after lunch was at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, another old looking church. You spent at least an hour there, taking pictures of the gothic architecture before your group got bored and your chaperones moved you into the next tourist attraction.

The next spot you all stopped at was at the Naval Museum in Peru. There you learned about Peru’s maritime history and seen photos, documents, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and many more. Eridan was especially interested in the naval history of the place.

There was nothing that really stood out to you while you were here. There were some interesting things to see but nothing of note to you. Your group spent another hour or two here.

The next stop was at yet another museum, an old decommissioned submarine.

The submarine had been called Abtao and your group got to tour around it’s inside. You spent a good hour or two looking around the place before it’s off to your last destination of the day.

Balneario De La Punta. You had all visited the viewing tower at the most western tip La Punta. It was a beautiful sightseeing spot, with the way the waves crashed into the rocks below. The sound of the sea with the waning sun in the distance left you with a sense of tranquillity.

“Do you find scenes like this romantic?” Dave asks you, leaning atop the rock wall separating you from the steep rocky terrain below you.

“Of fucking course I do.” You tell him simply. “Why?”

He shrugs. “Is there someone you think of when you see sights like this?”

The first name that pops into your mind upon asking the question disturbs you. So you keep that answer to yourself. Instead, you say, “My mom.” You look back out into the ocean. “She’s always been a romantic herself. She told me a lot of stories about her and my dad. I guess she influenced me some before she died.”

Both of his eyebrows shoot up above his shades. “Your mom died? I… I’m sorry, I didn’t know about that.”

You wave a dismissive hand. “It’s fine. I was eleven when it happened. I’ve dealt with it now.”

He nods. “I feel like I have to share something personal here too in return.”

You raise an eyebrow at him. “You don’t have to, you know.”

“No, I know that. But it just feels right. Like the mood and everything, y’know?” His voice is quiet and flat, but not in the usual way where he sounds completely emotionless. This one feels… Softer, somehow. “I was adopted too. I mean, not in the usual way where I was picked up from an adoption center or anything like that. I was adopted into the Lalonde household when I was ten.”

“Huh. I always wondered why you and Rose refer to each other as brother and sister but you don’t have the same last names.”

“Yeah, well, now you know.” He smiles over at you, small but there nonetheless. “Now we know a bit more about each other’s personal lives.”

That… That line tugs at something in your memory. It’s been a sensation you’ve felt around Strider for a long while now. It had been just been small at the time. You brushed it off as nothing. But the more you get to know Dave, the stronger the pull gets.

Kind of like a weird sense of deja vu. Like you’ve done this multiple times before and there’s a feeling of familiarity that shouldn’t be there. But it is.

You bite your lip and watch the white waves crash into the rocks below until the feeling passes.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You arrive back at the ship around the usual time, six. You’ve built a routine of having dinner with the rest of your friends before retiring back to your own cabin for the night.

You’re about to climb back into bed and go to sleep when your phone rings. A text.

It’s from Dave and it’s photo.

im really proud of this one  
  
thought you might like seeing it

 

 

The picture is kinda dark with high contrasts. The bright orange background of the sunset heightens the silhouette to the left of the picture. The water looks like glittering lights under the light. The photo has a trance-like quality to it that just makes you want to stare at it all day. Or night.

It takes you a while to realize who’s actually in the photo though. With the way the silhouette is slightly tilted away from the camera, you can see the back of the sweater it’s wearing. Although it’s very dim and hard to see, you realize that that’s definitely the same sweater you wore yesterday. Black with a graffiti style angel wings pattern on the back.

A quick check into his instagram page and you see the same photo of you. It was posted mere minutes ago.

THANKS.


	12. Seafaring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 15 - General San Martin, Peru

The next stop was at General San Martin, still in Peru. There wasn’t much to do around the place so your group were only out of the cruise ship for the morning up until lunch. It was mostly just looking through museums and around the local attractions, the place has to offer. And then you have lunch and that’s… That’s basically it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent back inside the ship. You and Strider had gotten together again to finish the rest of the second book inside your bedroom before moving onto binge-watching a bunch of movies.

The two of you agreed to alternate between a choice of your movie and a choice of his. This time though, he’s a loudmouth throughout most of your movies, pointing out cliches and unbelievable plot devices that would never actually work in real life. You wonder why he was so well behaved when the two of you watched The Time Traveler’s Life.

So in turn, you rant to him about  _ his _ movies cliches and unbelievable plot devices. The two of you mostly do banter with each other rather than actually doing any watching at that point.

Eventually, the two of you just get tired of that completely and you’re both laying down on the bed beside each other, staring at the ceiling. There’s a small tonal shift between the two of you and your loud rapports transitioned seamlessly to casual conversations normal friends would have.

“What’s your favourite part of the trip so far?” You had asked him after some time of silence had passed.

He thinks about this for a little while before answering. “I guess I really liked going to Manta? The kitesurfing shit was fun as all hell. Ten out of ten would kitesurf again.”

At the mention of that time, images of that day flash by your head. You remember the scars… But doubt he’d answer anything about that right now. “I’ve never seen you without shades until then. You have red eyes.”

Dave snorts. “Way to state the obvious, Sherlock. Did some really fuckin good sleuthing there.” You punch him on the shoulder. “ _ Ouch _ . Shit, alright! Fine, yes, I have red eyes. Weird as shit, I know.”

“Albinism, right? I guess they’re pretty weird, considering how rare they are. I think they’re pretty cool though.” You tell him. “Why do you hide it though?”

He flicks his glasses up onto his head, a move you never expected from him. “It’s really not when everyone fuckin calls you a demon spawn and being possessed by satan himself. Let’s just say that kindergarten didn’t leave me with very fond memories of the place. Definitely didn’t help that it was a catholic school too.”

You frown at that. You open your mouth but he flicks up a finger to stop you. “I don’t you to throw me a pity party and all that shit.  _ Poor little Davey got bullied in kindergarten? Oh you poor poor unfortunate soul _ . I don’t need any of that shit. Real tired of getting fed the same bullshit over and over again.

You push his hand down and prop yourself up onto your elbows. “That  _ wasn’t  _ what I was going to say, shit sponge. But seriously, did you just call yourself Davey?”

He smirks over at you, eyes having a mischievous gleam to it now that you can see it. “‘S not as bad as Karkitten.”

You punch him on the shoulder again. “Never call me that again, douchebag. I already have to suffer through Nepeta’s cat puns, I don’t need you adding onto the pile.”

He props himself up on one shoulder to face you. “So, what? Only Nepeta can call you Karkitty? I petition to be the only one to call you Kitkat then.”

“Whoops, you don’t have enough signatures, your petition is denied.”

“That won’t stop me from calling you that either way.” He waggled his eyebrows and you push him off of the bed. “Ow, man. Tone it down on the violence.”

“Only if you tone down your douchebag meter.” You scoff. “But anyway, I was going to ask if that was your only reason for wearing the shades.”

The blond slowly climbs back up onto the bed, flicking his shades back down onto his face. “Mostly, yeah. I didn’t actually fuckin understand why everyone avoided me back then because I was a dumb kid. When I told Dirk what happened, he got me a pair of shades and I’ve been wearing them since then. Even when I got pulled from kindergarten a few weeks after, I still wore them. Made me feel strong and smart like Dirk. I… really admired him as a kid.”

You hum in acknowledgement. “You were adopted into the Lalonde family, right? What’d they think about your odd eye colour?”

He settled back onto the bed, lying on his back. You do the same. “The Lalondes weren’t very big on religion anyway so they didn’t believe in all the satanic bullshit people associate with me because of my eye colour. They were mostly chill with it, I mean even Rose has a one in a million eye colour. Alexandria’s Genesis. Basically won the lottery of female genetics. She doesn’t have to deal with periods and still be fertile. We’re both kinda freaks of nature.”

“Huh. That’s cool, I guess.” Wow. How pathetic can you get? That’s literally the shittiest line you could ever say after everything he told you.

“I didn’t like how Rose and her mom treated me when I first told them about it though. They kinda babied me a lot of the time and constantly told me how “I didn’t deserve the type of life I was given". Like, no shit I didn’t. But I don’t need to be pitied and babysat twenty-four seven. I learned to handle myself a long time ago.”

You raise an eyebrow. You feel like he’s talking about something more here without explicitly telling you. “So that’s why you immediately assumed that’s where I was going with? You don’t have to worry about that shit with me, I know how it feels to be constantly be catered to like I was incapable of taking care of myself and pitied because I lost a parent. I can understand at least that much.”

He nods at your statement and silence settles between the two of you again. And then, “Hey, you wanna listen to some tunes I made?”

“You make music?”

Dave grins. “What can I say? I’m a multi-talented person. So, you wanna hear some of the shit I’ve made?”

You shrug. “Yeah, sure. Why the fuck not?”

The two of you shift on the bed as he pulls out his phone and a pair of headsets from his pocket. He plugs it onto his phone and hands you the earbuds while he scrolls through his phone. He taps a few things and then…

The first song plays and you groan, burying your face into your hands. He laughs at your reaction, aware of the shit he’s subjecting you to.

“Dave.” You deadpan, glaring at him.

“What’s up, man?”

“ _ Dave _ .” You say more firmly. “ _ What the fuck are you making me listen to? _ ”

He laughs at you again. “I’m pretty damn sure it’s obvious.”

You groaned louder. “Dave. Dave, this is literally just a fucking remix of a bunch of different anime girls moaning to make a steady beat. What the actual fuck. Why are you subjecting me to this shit? It literally feels like your headset is taking a huge dump into my eardrums, that’s how much of a piece of shit this thing you call  _ music  _ is.”

“I know. That’s exactly the point, dude. Wanna know what the title of this song is? Take a wild fucking guess.”

“Dave, I literally could not give more of a shit about what this thing’s title is. Just tell me, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna go in one ear and out the other anyway.”

“Ahegao in music form.” He tells you like it’s a big deal. He tells you with a big shit-eating grin because he’s also aware of how fucking stupid this shit is. And he fucking  _ revels  _ in it.

You groan like you’re literally dying and you’re at the last moments of your life.

He laughs at your misery. “Alright, alright, for real, I’ll give you something to actually listen to.”

He scrolls through his phone again and taps at something. The chorus of shitty anime moans finally ceases filling your ears.

This one isn’t much better either, though.

“Dave!” You growled, glaring at him. “This is literally just a mishmash of meme music heightened in volume made to literally rape my ears. This is just pure ear rape, Dave. Do you understand that? This is ear rape, this is not music. Unless you’ve got a really fucked up definition of music.

He just continues to laugh at you, scrolling through his phone. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll take this shit seriously now, here.”

The third song he plays you is one of Donald Trump’s speeches with the kazoo kid playing in the background. “Alright, that’s it, I’m kicking you out. Stand up. You’re officially banned from ever stepping foot in my room ever again. Get out of here.”

You rip the headset off of your head and start to get out of the bed when he grabs your wrist, still laughing. “Wait, wait, wait, I promise I’ll take it seriously now. I’ll actually let you listen to one of the more legit tracks I made, c’mon. Give me one more chance?

You sigh and climb back onto the bed, crossing your legs and facing him. “Alright, shitbag. But if this is one more meme music you play for me, I’m literally going to drag you by your perfect hair and personally drown you at sea.”

He chuckles at your threats and you slide on the earbuds once more. He does some more tapping and then… Music fills your ears again.

The tune of this one starts off soft. The sounds of wave crashing into shore slowly and steadily growing. And then a beat starts up, the strumming of a guitar. Slow and deliberate, it follows a certain tune. It follows the tune of the ocean. Like waves swelling up in the sea, it gets high and light, and like the waves, it curls lower and lower before hitting against the rocky shore, the music following after it as it gets low and rumbling. When you close your eyes, you can almost see each individual curl of the waves, each individual swelling, rolling blue across the waters before hitting the sand in a rush of sounds and then receding back on itself to start it all over again. Each note mimics this constant beat.

If the ocean’s waves were turned into an instrument and made to play, it would sound like this.

The song continues for a long while, bringing you into a trance-like tranquil state. When it ends, the waves slowly fading out with the guitar slowly following after it, you realize you’ve got your eyes closed the entire time. When you open your eyes, you’re staring at Dave who’s nervously biting the corners of his lips.

“This one is a bit more experimental for me. It’s not my usual stuff, but I thought you’d like this one better compared to my other upbeat remixes. It’s not completely finished or polished yet, I still plan to add a couple more instruments at certain points beside the guitar. This is just kinda the foundation of it. So I’m not completely confident with this one but I chose this one anyway specifically for you considering your taste for romance and stuff… I thought you might like it.” He rambles on, fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt.

“It’s great.” You tell him honestly and that gets him to shut up. You smile softly at him and he returns the gesture shakily. “Really, Dave. This amazing. I can’t wait for you to finish the rest of this off then.”

“I was inspired by the cruise trip and the places we went to. I named this one ‘Seafaring’.” He tells you, showing you his phone for a moment.

You slide the earbuds off. “I liked it. Thanks, for trusting me to listen to this. Were you the one playing the guitar?”

He nods happily. “Yeah. Everything about this is made by me. I wrote the notes and stuff, got a recording of the ocean, and then played the guitar- I have this cool program that lets me imitate each chord and note on a guitar to play a complete tune without having to physically have a guitar- before putting it all together at another music program I have on my laptop.”

You nod, biting your lip. There’s that strange feeling in the back of your head and inside your chest. Like you’ve done something similar like this before, but you can’t pinpoint when, why, or how.

“I didn’t know you played the guitar.” You say in a teasing manner instead.

His laugh is more genuine this time. When did he start laughing so openly with you? “As I said, I’m a multi-talented man.” He says smugly, clearly taking pride in his work.

“Just this once, I’m letting you inflate your own ego because you actually deserve this one since you actually put in effort and work into it.” You tell him, shoving him nearly off the bed.

“That’s high praise coming from Karkat Vantas. I’m flattered.” He shoves you right back and you let yourself fall into the bed, laughing.

“Anyway, so. You wanna start a new book or ruin another movie for each other?” You offered him.

He shrugs, pocketing his phone and headset back. “Let’s start another book because I actually enjoyed doing that compared to watching your emotional porn romcoms.”

You rolled your eyes as you shifted on the bed to grab the last book you got from the library last week. He settles into place as well, going on his stomach and resting his cheek against the sheets as he watched you fluff up your pillows before leaning back on them and relaxing.

“What’s this one about now?”

You crack open the book to its first place. “This one’s pretty much like the other book we read only it features girls this time. And it’s a bit more modern. If you can call it that.”

He quirked an eyebrow up at you. “So basically, you got three different books featuring three different relationship dynamics by gender.”

You shrug. “I guess. Pretty much.”

He makes a sound of affirmation and you begin to read.

“Annie on my mind…”


	13. Meddlesome Sister And Her Meddlesome Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 16 & 17 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS WE'RE GETTING TO THE REALLY FUN PART FOR ME TO WRITE
> 
> It's in the next few chapters and I'm so excite for you guys to read it and see what you think of it xD I really enjoy your lovely comments :"3
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Four days at sea.

That’s the longest time you have to spend on the cruise ship as you make your way to the next destination. That means you’ve got quite a bit of time to kill while on the ship. You might actually get to check out some of the things you’ve been meaning to check out around the place.

The two of you had kind of been inseparable in the past few days. Dave has been hanging around you more and more lately and today is no exception. Although sometimes, you have company with you. That company happens to be Jade this time.

The three of you were wandering the small strip mall available aboard the ship. Chatting and bantering as normal friends do.

Until Strider receives a message. Of course, being the nosy bitches that you and Harley are, you peer over his shoulder to see what it says.

Lesbian Wednesday Adams (Rose)   
  
Dave I need you at top deck. Come immediately if you can.  
  
you gotta tell me why first sis  
  
im not falling for one of your tricks again  
  
we have rules rose  
  
Just come up already.  
  
you know thats not how this shit work between us rosie  
  
you refusing to tell me why tells me one thing  
  
you know what that one thing is?  
  
it means youre up to something and i refuse to be apart of any of it  
  
the cupcake incident when we were twelve will not be repeated  
  
Fine, if you insist on being a pain in the ass, I'll tell you.  
  
I may or may have not signed you up at a beauty contest the cruise ship is holding for the next four days.  
  
As a joke.  
  
So get up to top deck so we can get you started. The first show’s about to begin in a few hours.  
  
Dave?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh my _god_ , I can’t believe Rose actually went through with it!” Jade says excitedly, practically jumping up and down. 

Dave stares at the green-eyed girl dumbfoundedly. “Wait, wait, _wait_. What the fuck is happening?”

Jade giggles, clasping her hands together. “Okay see, me and the girls saw this poster a couple of days back in the cruise ship bulletin board. It was a promotional poster about an upcoming beauty contest everyone on the ship will vote on to crown the Lei King and Queen. Rose was joking at the time about signing up one or a few of the boys for it while some of the girls actually _did_ sign up for it. I didn’t think she’d actually fill out a form and sign you up for real! This is fucking _amazing_!”

You burst out laughing at the way Dave’s face slowly morphed into a horrified expression as Jade explained.

He turns to glare at you. “It is so not fucking funny.” But Jade is pretty much losing her own shit at this. “Fuck Y'all. I’m not doing this shit.”

im not playing dress up for you rose  
  
not for hundreds of people at a fucking beauty pageant  
  
what the actual fuck rose  
  
You're with Jade and Karkat, if I'm remembering correctly, right?  
  
yeah why  
  
Perfect.

 

 

 

Jade’s and your own phone rings in your pockets. You both pull it out. 

It’s a message from Rose. And by the way Harley is looking at you, you can guess that it says pretty much the same message.

Lesbian No.2 (Rose)  
  
Could you kindly take Dave up to the top deck for me? Thank you in advance.

 

 

Jade looks at the blond with bright glittering eyes. Dave’s face moves from mortification to one of panic. “Oh no. _Fuck no_.”

Then, he books it.

You and Jade share a look before dashing after Strider at the same time, calling after him and laughing.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You share a triumphant high-five with Harley. 

The two of you had chased Strider down the strip mall and around corridors. At some point, he rides up the elevator and the two of you had to jump into the nearest one catch up with him. You bump into a lot of people along the way and both you and Jade shout your apologies while running past.

Eventually, though, he tires himself out and half-way through, you called it quits on chasing after him. You were not a very athletic person and you have even shittier endurance.

But Jade kept going. Of course, she would, she was in the track team for all of her three years in high school and scored a silver medal in statewide track and field competition. She hauls his ass back to where she left you and the two of you continue to pull him up to the top deck.

You climb the stairs to meet Rose at the elevated area surrounding the pool. At the bow of the boat was a huge stage that can definitely be seen by the people below. You guess that that’s going to be the runway for the show.

Rose thanked both you and Harley and looked over Dave’s current condition. “He’s a bit sweaty, but that’s fine. They’re just introducing the candidates of the contest today. The real show starts tonight. We’ve got plenty of time to prepare him.”

“Fuck you, Rose Lalonde.” Dave spats, both arms still linked around your own and Jade’s to make sure he won’t run away again and to keep him in place.

“I’d really rather not participate in incestuous activities, dear brother.” She says sickly sweet as she checks the watch on her wrist. “They should be here any second now… Ah, there they are.”

You all look to the stairs and watch as another person gets hauled in by the arms by Vriska and Terezi. You burst out laughing again.

“Oh my god, you even got John into this?” You wheezed and John shoots you an annoyed look. You flip him off and he sticks his tongue out at you.

“Did you run too, bro?” Dave questions John, an amused smirk on his lips.

“Of course I did. The scrooge sisters cornered me though. Turns out, even male bathrooms are not safe when you’re being hunted by these two.”

“This one was a slippery one, Lalonde. Where’s my twenty bucks?” Vriska puts her hands on her hips and makes a gimme motion with one hand. Rose smoothly pulls out a twenty dollar bill from her cardigan pocket.

Terezi cackles. “Seeing these two’s misery is enough of a payment for me!”

“Four, actually. We’re still waiting on _one_ more.” Rose clarifies and as if on cue, you hear a loud shout full of swears and lisping from across the deck.

“Oh my god, Sollux is in this shit too?” Dave questions, laughter in his voice. You all watch as poor Captor slips on the stairs multiple times going up while being dragged in by Aradia and Feferi.

“We’re here, Rose! When’s the show starting again?” Aradia chirps, in high spirits. Like she usually is these days.

Rose checks her watch once more. “We’ve still got a good hour or two to at least make these four idiots presentable.”

Four. You raise an eyebrow at her. “Who’s the fourth one?”

Rose opens her mouth to answer when her expression uncharacteristically brightens, looking past you. You can accurately guess why that is. “Kanaya! You made it.”

She moved to kiss her girlfriend on the cheek. “Of course I would. And you actually did it, I’m quite surprised. I thought Karkat would’ve put up the most fight about this.”

You think you hear a record scratch somewhere. “Wait, _what_?”

Rose smirks at you smugly, crossing her arms. “We thought of putting down the names of the boys who would hate participating in this kind of thing down.”

Your heart comes to an abrupt halt. It’s Dave’s turn to burst into loud laughter when the implications of the violet-eyed girl’s words finally catch up with all of you. Even John and Sollux share a few snickers. You feel your cheeks burn up.

“Oh my god. Oh my _fucking god._ Lalonde you did not just-"

“Oh, I think I definitely did.” She crosses her arms in that annoying condescending way she does.

“Maryam, you better have brought a black dress to this cruise because you’re gonna need it when I fucking murder your girlfriend in her sleep.” Rose simply hides her quiet laughter behind a hand like she’s some proper English lady from the eighteen hundreds.

You make a turn to leave only to be blocked by Serket as she takes steps towards you. You take steps back and away from her. “Where do you think you’re goin’, squirt?”

“You’re staying here Karkles. We’re gonna make sure of it.” Terezi cackles at you, still holding John hostage all by herself.

God.

This is such fucking bullshit.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The girls got the four of you into nicer, more presentable clothes. Nepeta got swept up into the whole thing as well and so the four of you each have two security guards to make sure you go through with this entire bullshit. Rose and Kanaya looked after you, Jade and Nepeta looked after Dave, Terezi and Vriska looked after John, and Aradia and Feferi looked after Sollux.

Kanaya is the last word though. She got to see each of you to make sure that your clothes fit each of your unique aesthetics.

She made you wear a plain black v neck and some fitted jeans with a few tears and rips at the knees (you have no idea why you bought that thing in the first place). Dave got put into a sleek black unbuttoned blazer with a plain white t-shirt and skinny jeans. John was fitted with a dark blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up partnered up with whitewashed jeans. Sollux was put into a white half button up t-shirt with sleeves that reached just to the elbows and white khaki pants.

You all felt ridiculous. You all probably look ridiculous too.

And afterwards, you were pushed back to the top deck and the staff of the beauty contest arranged you in proper order by last names.

Apparently, Aradia and Feferi joined the competition too, but for the female part of the event. Aradia was wearing a nice black flowy skirt that reached to her knees and a tucked in plain maroon t-shirt. Feferi was a bit of glammed up with glittering jewelry on her neck, ears, wrists, and fingers. She wore a soft baby blue halter dress with a wide open back and her hair was tied up to show it off.

It was around noon when the whole event started and you were all forced to stand up on stage. From where you are, you can see quite a few people had actually gathered around the top deck to watch and anxiety started to eat you up.

The announcer called each one of you up to stand beside her to introduce you to the crowd and have the people get a good look at you.

Sollux was clearly uncomfortable in his clothes, he’s not used to showing this much skin much less wearing clothes that actually _fitted_ his form. He liked to wear baggy clothes a lot.

John and Dave seemed mostly relaxed and you tried your best to keep calm as well. When it was your turn to go up, you easily spot Kanaya in the crowd. She has her eyes narrowed at you and you roll your eyes at her and try for an easy smile. That should keep her pageant mom instincts satisfied for now.

Afterwards, you were each take a photo with the blue sky and seas behind you. The announcer explains it’s to have a reference photo of each participant to showcase to the public when voting begins.

You’re just glad to be in your own room afterwards. The whole thing lasted about two hours, an hour each for both the male category and the female category.

On your way back to the cabins, the four of you complained about your clothing and the whole event in general. You all also shared your dread at the fact that you have to do it again tonight and for the next three nights until the voting ends.

Thankfully, the contest is a shallow piece of shit so you’re all only going to be judged by looks and you don’t have to do a lot of talking if any at all. You’d never admit it but being under the scrutiny of so many pairs of eyes makes you nervous.

The rest of the day is spent with you and Strider complaining about the girls, reading books, and watching a couple of movies together in your suite.

The nighttime comes far too fast for your liking.

Kanaya comes over to your room and kicks Dave out so she can pamper you before the show. Apparently, there are only four categories and the last night is reserved to officially announce the winners. She tells you that tonight’s theme is simply semi-formal wear.

She digs through your closet and lets out a huff of frustration. She tells you none too kindly that your clothes are shit.

Eventually, though, she does put together an outfit for you with what you have although she tells you that you’re going shopping tomorrow.

She makes you wear a black button up shirt and rolls the sleeves up to your elbows and the first few buttons around the neck unbuttoned before putting you in a dark washed pair of jeans. She cleans your black sneakers a bit to make it look less ratty than it actually is. Then she makes you sit in front of a mirror and manages to take your hair enough to actually… Make you look somewhat better than you did before. Then, she gets Rose to escort you out and to the top deck.

You’re the first one to get there. The next to come along, escorted by Vriska, is John. He’s wearing a black button-up shirt like you but he’s got on a navy blue blazer that’s only got the first button buttoned up. He also wears black khaki pants that just makes his outfit pop even more. His hair is also styled and you guess that Maryam is just going door to door and dressing up each of you. You wonder how much she’s enjoying this.

Next to come along is Sollux in a tacky bright mustard yellow button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up as well. He wears a black fitted vest over top and a similar dark washed pair of jeans. You have to admit, he does look much more presentable than he usually looks on a daily basis.

The last one to arrive is Dave. Apparently, Jade had to hunt him around the cruise ship so it took a while longer for him to get dressed up.

He was… Well, he was downright gorgeous. Like, jesus fuck, he cleans up nicely when he wants to. Or, well, forced to.

He’s wearing a dark red v neck under a dark blue blazer with its sleeves rolled up and yellow accents around it. It’s partnered with a white pair of fitted jeans. His signature shades are still on his face.

Your heart definitely does not race at the sight of this.

“Holy fuck. You all clean up pretty nicely, damn. Except for John, he actually puts in an effort when he dresses every day like a dork.” Dave mutters under his breath as soon as he got close. You’re all hanging around the bottom of the stage along with the other contestants. “Especially you, Vantas. It’s nice to see you out of your lame band t-shirts and oversized sweaters.”

You pin him a glare. “And you look even more like a pretentious bastard. At least I can say you’re not false advertising the product of your personality.”

“God, I’m pretty sure we all look like pretentious bastards right now, KK,” Sollux grumbles, crossing his arms and looking around.

He smiles when Aradia and Feferi approach. Aradia has got her hair styled in pretty curls around her shoulder with a rose pin on her head. She’s wearing a poofy black lace dress and some modest similarly black high heels. She’s even got makeup on, eyes a smoky black and lips coloured in red.

Feferi was a bit more vibrant in colour. She wears a bright pink shoulderless dress that fans outwards until her knees. Her hair is pulled back into a similar tight high ponytail like earlier in the morning and her makeup reminds you of those from the eighties. Bright and popping.

“You look good, boys!” Feferi giggles and Aradia nods in agreement.

“Did you thank Kanaya for dressing you guys up so nicely?” Aradia questions, crossing her arms in front of her. John groans.

“Why would we thank her when she’s putting us through this torture?” He whines and Aradia flicks him on the nose.

“It’d still be polite to say thank you to her. At least she didn’t make you wear something like that guy.” She points her thumb back behind her to a guy who was wearing neon coloured clothing that was just harsh on the eye under the lights. You have to look away quickly before you blind yourself.

Sollux grimaces. “Is that guy aware he’s basically committing social suicide with that outfit?

“Like you’re one to talk, Captor. You commit social suicide with the way you dress every morning on a regular day.” Dave teases and Sollux shoves him on the shoulder while John laughs. “Damn, maybe we _should_ be thanking Kanaya for fixing up Sollux for a change.”

You roll your eyes. “She’s probably really enjoying playing dress up with us like dolls. She doesn’t need her ego inflated with as well.”

“I happen to think Sollux looks fine just the way he is.” Feferi chirps, and you think you see a light dusting of red on her cheeks despite her dark complexion.

Aradia laughs. “I agree. But it’s nice to see him all dressed up like this from time to time.” The two of them seem to make meaningful contact before Sollux looks away, clearly bashful. God, these two are just so cute together. You don’t miss the longing look on Peixes face, even if it was only there for a second.

The six of you chat a bit more before the announcer gets on stage and one of the staff members gets all of you lined up by name again.

After introductions are made, the announcer gets off of the stage and begins to call in each contestant up with her mic.

John actually goes first and you watch him walk down the short white runway confidently, a goofy yet charming smile on his face.

As you progress down the line, the more you get nervous and fidget around in your spot. You feel exposed in this type of clothing and you wish you had a sweater to hide behind. They always served a purpose to you; to hide away your body and serve as a wall between you and others around you. It’s like a safety blanket around you.

To say the least, you’re not exactly confident in your own skin.

You try your best to hide it but it must be obvious enough for Dave to see because he taps your shoulder to catch your attention (S and V are pretty close together and there’s no one with any last names that starts with T, or U, meaning you get to stand next to him in line). 

“Are you nervous?” He asks you quietly.

“What does it look like, shitstain?” You groan. “Of fucking course I am. I’m shitty at things like this. Plus, I feel stupid wearing clothes like this.”

“Y’know there’s really no need for you to be worried. You’re just gonna smile and walk a couple of steps and then you’re out and done for the night. It’s easy. You’re at least capable of that, right?”

You worry your lower lip, staring out at the crowd. You clearly look unconvinced, so Strider moves to lean down and whisper in your ear. “Plus, you look good. You’ll do just fine.”

Your fidgeting hands still from playing with the collar of your shirt, a cold chill going down your spine at the close proximity without making actual contact. You feel your neck and ears burn.

At least this derails your negative thoughts about your body image. You’re not sure if the idea of ripping off his fancy clothes in private is any better though.

When your mind’s being an insecure little bitch, think with your dick.

Eventually, Dave’s turn comes up. He holds your hand for a second and mouth “good luck" to you before climbing up the stairs and swaggering his way down the runway, an easy confident smile on. He leaves the stage on the opposite side with a two finger salute.

Your name is called and you take a deep breath.

_"Don’t worry.”_

_“You look good.”_

You climb up the stairs.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Kanaya makes good on her promise.

Since you and Dave are mostly together nowadays, she decided to let Dave tag along on your trip to the small strip mall inside the ship. “Killing two birds with one stone.” She tells you since apparently, all three of you don’t own or didn’t bring a tux with you on the ship. John did though.

She said she’d hunt down Sollux later in the day, but for this morning, you and Strider are going to be trying on various suits and ties.

Kanaya explains that tonight’s theme is formal. You don’t know the difference between semi-formal and formal and Kanaya tells you that she’s not going to waste her breath explaining it to you when you don’t actually care about the information she presents you.

Rose tags along when she caught wind of the fact that Kanaya is taking you shopping and that Dave is coming along with you.

The four of you spend the morning in the men's clothing store. It’s quite big and actually offers an abundance of different types of clothing. It’s mostly Kanaya who strolls around the place, picking a bunch of different outfits for you to try on.

She makes you try on the first batch with Dave. You both complain about how time-consuming it is to put on a tux while changing in a changing stall next to each other.

Kanaya goes through a bunch of different styles for both of you, with Rose watching amusedly and making snide remarks towards Dave who always replied eloquently with a “fuck you" and a middle finger.

Eventually, Kanaya sighs in frustration, rubbing her temples. Rose pats her shoulder comfortingly. “It’s alright dear. We’ll find the right matches eventually.”

“What if we choose one for each other?” Dave suggests and both girls raise an eyebrow at him in skepticism. “I mean, Kanaya’s been looking through a shit ton of suits since we got here, she’s probably going through a burnout right now. Maybe a new perspective would help.”

Kanaya taps her chin with a finger, actually giving it some thought.

Rose is the voice who voices all of your concerns with letting Dave pick out a suit. “Do you have any plans of fucking up the day further by picking garishly coloured suits and ties as a joke?”

Dave raises his hands in a seemingly placating manner. “Look, I promise to take this shit seriously. I won’t pick meme-worthy suits.”

Kanaya bites her lip before nodding. “That may be a good idea. Maybe a new perspective is just what we need. Alright, you and Karkat can go check out the rest of what this store has to offer while me and Rose get some bubble tea to maybe inspire something in me in the meantime.”

You nod and shoo the two of them away. “Alright, me and Strider have got this. You two go have some fun lesbian times.”

And so, the two of you walked around for a bit, looking for something that would match the other.

You think you spot a good one for Dave and proceed to grab that one. You continue looking just in case until Kanaya and Rose return.

“So, what have the two of you got?” Rose inquires, looking at both of your hands that each carried a suit.

“I guess we’ll see.” You reply with a shrug and offer the suit to Dave while you take the suit he’s picked out for you from his hands.

You enter the changing stall once again and quietly change into the clothes. Once you’re done, you give yourself a once-over in the mirror, moving around to look at yourself from every angle.

It wasn’t bad. You could definitely say it’s one of the best ones you’ve tried on that actually suits you. The suit he picked out for you is a deep dark red velvet one with matching coloured dress pants. Dark enough that you could easily mistake it for black but shines red if you move at the right angle or the light hits it in a certain way. It comes with a silvery coloured button up shirt that matches your eye colour and a darker shade of gray for the tie.

“I’m ready.” You call out.

“Me too,” Dave says right afterwards.

“Alright then, both of you can come out at the same time then.” You hear Kanaya say and move to unlock the door and step out.

Both girl’s reactions were one of surprise as each of them looks back and forth between you and Dave.

The suit you had picked for Dave was a plain black suit with bright contrasting red accents like the ruby encrusted cufflinks that twinkled under the light. The button-up shirt underneath was a similarly coloured black one making the plain red tie pop around his neck. The dark colours of the whole suit compliment his light skin nicely. It looked every bit as good as you imagined it would when he wore it.

The girls whispered to each other conspiratorially and you rolled your eyes. “Can the two of you stop talking like you’re scheming up an evil plan that rivals that of a Disney princess villain and tell us exactly what you think?”

Kanaya clears her throat. “Each suit matches you perfectly, actually.”

Rose narrows her eyes at both of you, a knowing smile on her lips. “Too perfectly, actually.”

You feel your cheeks burn up again and you look at Dave at the same time he looks at you. Both of you immediately look away upon a split second of eye contact.

“So what? I know what looks good on Dave and Dave knows what looks good on me. Does it really matter?” You spat, crossing your arms.

Rose mirrors your movements; a challenge. “It just seems like the two of you spent enough time together observing each other’s style for a long enough period to know exactly what would look good on the other person.”

Is she.

Is she actually accusing you of ogling your friend in that manner?

You open your mouth, ready to give Lalonde a piece of your mind when Dave cuts you off.

“You know what, Rose? You can take you and your psychoanalysis bullshit away from us because it literally has nothing to do with whatever you think is happening right now. We’re just good pals who know what looks good and what doesn’t on each other. I actually do happen to have _some_ sense of fashion. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

You’re definitely not a little disappointed to hear that.

Kanaya claps her hands together to catch all of your attention. “Alright. That’s enough of that, time is running short and I still have to dress up Sollux. Let’s get these paid for and go.”

You and Dave return back to the stalls and change back to your normal clothes. You then follow the girls to the cash register and pay for the clothes and go on your separate ways.

You and Dave continue with your daily activities for the rest of the day until the evening of the show begins.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

All six of you are gathered below the stage once more. You and Dave are wearing the suits you had bought earlier in the day. 

John was wearing a plain black suit with a white collared button up shirt underneath and a blue tie with pretty swirly patterns on it. Sollux was wearing a black suit with thin vertical lines all over it and a similar white button up undershirt like John’s.

Aradia was wearing a sleeveless high-neck fitted black dress that wrapped around her curves nicely. Her hair was meticulously wrapped in a bun with a braid going around her head almost like a headband. Silver earrings glittering under the lights is the only jewelry she wore. Sollux was shamelessly staring at his girlfriend in awe.

Feferi was wearing a tight fuschia coloured dress with a sweetheart neckline and hugged all of her own curves nicely as well. Her hair was down this, her neck adorned with jewelry once more with matching earrings. She kept her wrists and hands bare from bracelets or rings this time.

There are clearly fewer of you compared to yesterday.

The way the voting works is that there’s a set time to start and a set time to end. The first few with the fewest votes gets eliminated, and this occurs for the next two days until there are only five contestants left (the voting is actually online). Three will be crowned first, second and third, first taking the title of Lei King.

You expected to be one of the first ones voted out but here you are, still participating. If you don’t get voted out tomorrow, you’ll have to participate in the last event that night before moving onto the announcement night the next day where the winners will be crowned.

The males are the second ones to go on stage so, by the time you’re all lined up, the girls are already off on the other side, waiting for the event to finish.

Each one of you slowly goes to walk down the runway and when it’s your turn, you feel a little more confident this time. It feels much easier this time around, the encouraging words from yesterday night echoing around your head.

Once you get off the stage, you move to look for Dave in the crowd, wanting to thank him for what he told you yesterday to calm your nerves down. You’ll say it sarcastically though, but mean every word of it.

Instead, you find John and ask him if he’s seen Dave around. “Oh! Dave? He’s kinda being flocked by some girls right now. From what I heard, he’s in the lead in terms of votes. This got a lot of girls’ interest.” He cheerfully points to somewhere in the crowd and sure enough, you find Dave surrounded by some of the female contestants left still in the competition. “Lucky bastard.” John laughs.

You bite the inside of your cheek and tell yourself you’re not disappointed. Or jealous. You’re not. You’re really, really not. You swear.

Maybe if you say it enough times, it’ll actually become the truth.


	14. Liking You Is Getting Harder And Harder To Deny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 18 & 19 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have much to say, I just hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, Happy Halloween guys! Hope you got a shit ton of loot if you did go trick or treating! Fuck the guys that tell you that you're too old to go trick or treating XD

The next theme for tonight’s event is swimwear.

What’s worse is you made it as one of the finalists in the contest.

Meaning you have to participate in the event.

This makes you want to stab your eyes out with a hot iron fire poker.

What makes you curious about the whole thing though, is specifically Dave’s reaction to finding out the theme when Kanaya approached you that afternoon to get both of you dressed up. The two of you were hanging around your cabin again, reading and shooting the shit.

He had grabbed Lalonde by the upper arm and pulled her aside into his cabin. You and Kanaya cringed when hushed voices behind the door grew louder into an actual shouting match. Dave had left the room with an iron-hard poker face. He requested Kanaya to be the last one she’ll dress up for the evening before turning on his heel and stalking away.

Rose had emerged from his bedroom moments afterwards, looking a little red in the face. When Kanaya inquired about it, she had simply waved a dismissive hand about the whole ordeal they just had.

You have a guess as for the reason for Dave’s sudden outburst about the whole thing.

There wasn’t really very much dressing up for this thing. Mostly because you’ll only be wearing swim trunks on stage with no shirt on.

You voiced your insecurities with Kanaya and being the good friend that she is, she actually takes the time to have a proper sit down with you to talk about feelings.

You tell her you’re not confident in walking around shirtless, much less actually going on stage and having people  _ judge  _ you on it. She tells you that you’re fine the way you are and that you wouldn’t need to stand around for everyone to stare at you for very long. She tells you that you’re not actively gunning to win anyway, Rose only did this for fun and entertainment. Granted, it’s for the rest of your friends’ entertainment, but she suspects that you and the other boys have actually enjoyed getting into fancy clothing and showing off for a bit.

You tell her that her woman’s intuition is wrong on that front.

She asks you to be just a little braver than you usually are. Nobody is going to call you out for not having a magazine worthy body, and she promises that if anyone does, they’ll meet their end at the edge of her chainsaw. Your worries are somewhat assuaged for the time being.

You find out later that day that Sollux actually got eliminated on the last contest and he decided to celebrate not having to get up on stage in swimwear by ordering the massive sundae they offer aboard the ship. Anyone who can finish it in its entirety gets free desserts for an entire week on board the cruise ship.

He also makes fun of the three of you for being pretty enough to have to suffer through this. Dave makes a cutting remark about what that says about his own looks by being eliminated and he simply said that he made it much farther than he expected anyway so his self-esteem isn’t tarnished one bit.

The event goes on at night like usual and you perform (if you can even call it that) on the stage like you normally do.

And like you expected- looks like Dave got a makeover. And by make-over, you mean the scars you saw last time weren’t visible. Most likely foundation.

The girls had worn some pretty revealing swimsuits for the event and you can see Sollux still eyeing Aradia in her deep v neck cut one piece swimsuit. You shouted for him to get a fucking room and laughed when people’s attention was directed at him in response meaning he couldn’t ogle Aradia anymore without looking like a creep. Even if he is her boyfriend. Aradia even laughs at him too.

Like usual, Strider was crowded by the girls. Kanaya and Rose had brought you guys a t-shirt to put on as soon as the event was finished. The only good thing you got out of Dave being surrounded by five or more girls is when Rose had stomped her way through them to hand Strider his own t-shirt. When the girls criticized her about getting ‘ _ Davey _ ’ to cover up and asked her who she even is to order him around, Rose had none too kindly let them know that she was his sister and she has every right to order him around. Dave laughed and thanked Rose while the girls looked embarrassed. As they should be.

John whined to you in his very oblivious heterosexual way about wanting some female attention too and you had rolled your eyes but let him rant at you about how Dave getting all the attention was unfair.

You don’t the chance to talk to Dave at all until you all head back for your cabin. Even then, you weren’t even sure what to say to him. You still haven’t thanked him for encouraging you that first day of the competition. It just felt like it wasn’t the right time.

The next day rolled by and John had happily announced the start of something he affectionately calls ‘Prank Wars Week’ at the breakfast lounge. He even sent a snap of him with the party filter on (one that puts a party hat on your head with streamers and confetti falling all around your face) and enthusiastically announced “PRANK WARS IS STARTING GUYS!! GET YOURSELVES READY TO BE PRANKED!” to everyone on his contact list.

Nobody really took him seriously.

Everyone had been too busy watching the votes come in for the winner of the beauty contest. Surprisingly, you make it as one of the five finalists along with John and Dave.

The last theme was apparently ‘something summery’ so she put you in a navy blue with thick white stripes t-shirt (complete with a breast pocket with an anchor decorating it) and white khaki pants.

John was made to wear ripped jean shorts, a white polo shirt and an unbuttoned mint blue button up shirt over top. Dave wore black pants with red, orange, and yellow summer flowers decorating it, partnered with a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Aradia and Feferi made it as finalists as well. Aradia was wearing a white halter dress with red flowers decorating all over the fabric and a thick red ribbon wrapping around the waist with her long hair tied up in a ponytail. Feferi was wearing a pale mint green wrap-around cocktail dress and her hair was arranged in a complicated braid that fell on her left shoulder.

The event went by pretty fast. You all walked down the runaway and after you’ve all done that, the announcer happily announces that the crowd has fifteen minutes to get in their last votes before the winners were announced. So she made all of you stand around on stage for fifteen whole minutes. Bitch.

Once the fifteen minutes was up though, the announcer steps up to the stage again holding an envelope. She announces the winner for the female category first.

Aradia takes second place and Feferi takes third. The winner and the crowned Lei Queen of the ship is someone you don’t know. Rochelle Von Amsterdam, apparently. She had mocha coloured skin with bright hazel eyes and a long curly set of hair that fell around her nicely. She wore a white tank top with a matching sheer wrap around skirt with flowers decorating it. A white lily was placed on the left side of her hair.

The announcer gives her a golden plastic crown and a bunch of lei flowers around her neck. All while she waves to the crowd with a smile that could probably rival Jade’s on her most excited state.

You don’t know why you get a sick feeling inside your gut.

Next was the male category. John takes third place and a dude with a fuck boy hairdo and tattoos all over his skin takes second place. The winner and crowned Lei King of the ship is, unsurprisingly, Strider.

In the few times you actually checked the voting site for the whole event, Dave has topped each themed event of the night. He’s been in the lead ever since the start.

He looked genuinely surprised at being called forth to be crowned with a similar plastic crown and a fuck ton of lei flowers around his neck

The announcer takes a step aside to let the crowd get a good look at the winners. “Our Lei King and Queen, folks!” She happily announces and the crowd erupts in wolf whistles, claps, and whoops.

Your gut tightens when the crowned Queen goes on her tippy toes to place a peck on Dave’s cheek.

The sick feeling inside your stomach worsens when he turns to her with a surprised expression, both eyebrows raised above his shades, a light pink dusting his cheeks so obviously because of his light skin.

You don’t realize how tightly you’re clenching your fists at your sides.

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

There’s a party thrown right after the crowning event.

The girls and the rest of your friends rush up to congratulate all of you in your winnings. Rose remarks about how she didn’t expect  _ any  _ of you to last this long, much less win a place in the competition. You are kind of surprised that you made it this far in the competition out of dozens of other guys who participated.

Kanaya wraps you in a hug and tells you that she’s proud of you. You call her a pageant mom and she only squeezes you even more tightly in her embrace.

You all move to go to the lower part of the top deck to grab some drinks and foods to celebrate. Dave gets tugged away by the female winner of the competition though and John waves dismissive a hand saying that he can celebrate however he wants to. And it doesn’t always necessarily need to involve all of your friends.

You chat with your friends and tell stories about the experience as a whole. Nepeta sticks close to you for quite a little while, probably ‘guarding’ you to an extent when John gets his coveted ‘heterosexual female attention’ at the party for scoring a place even though it’s only the third. 

You don’t mind. You don’t mind because your head is busy someplace else.

You suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later. The more you ignored it, the more you made excuses for it, the more you dismissed it, the more it grew. You really had wished it would simply go away, that it was just a small attraction purely because of aesthetics. Something physical. Something shallow and superficial. That’s easier to carry than having to deal with actual  _ feelings _ .

It was bound to happen that you’ll eventually have to face your feelings about this whole thing.

You just want to get it over with.

Get rejected and avoid him the rest of the trip like Kanaya had told you at the beginning to persuade you into joining; the ship was big enough to hide away from someone if you’re doing it purposefully.

You want to get it over with before ‘like’ can turn into anything more. Your heart is notoriously known for getting you to fall for the wrong people at the wrong time.

It happened with Terezi, from when you were a little grade schooler with a crush all the way into high school and you convinced yourself you really loved her.

It happened with John, in middle school when you were just a confused tween, only then realizing that you don’t have to like just  _ one _ gender and the word ‘bisexual’ entered your vocabulary.

It happened with Jade, in high school, freshman year and her popularity and bright bubbly personality drew you in just like Terezi’s confidence once did.

You just have to get it over with.

“Wait here, guys. I’m just gonna go to the bathroom real quick.” You tell your friends a bit absentmindedly, your body running on autopilot. You stand up from the table your group is occupying and Nepeta reluctantly lets go of your hand.

You weave through the crowd, the words being whispered into your ear.  _ Tell him. Just tell him. _

You eventually find him on the staircase, leaning against the railing while whats-her-face blocked his path from going anywhere.

_ Tell him. Just tell him. _

“Strider, can we talk? I have something I want to tell you.” You ask him, the mind haze you were in slowly dissipating. “It’s something important.”

“What’s so important that you can’t just tell him right now?” What’s-her-face questions you, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at you.

“Did you fail to notice the big bold light up lettering saying “fuck off" in my sentence? Or did you fail first grade and never learned to read in the first place?” You snapped, barely even giving her your attention. Dave raises an eyebrow at you.

She seems unfazed, putting a hand on Dave’s shoulder and lingering for a moment. “You know where to find me when you’re done.” Then, she walks off.

Dave pushes himself off the railing to fully face you, eyebrow still raised. “What was that for?”

And then, as if the elastic band that is your brain snaps, everything comes into dizzying focus and you’re hyper-aware of what the fuck you’re doing. About to do.

Your breaths come in slow shallow breaths, averting your eyes from him. You suddenly can’t bear to look at him, feeling the familiar burning sensation around your neck slowly spreading upwards 

“Kitkat?”

You don’t reply.

“Karkat…? You said you had something to tell me…?”

“I forgot.”

The words come tumbling out of your mouth before you can even process them. The heat only intensifies as your embarrassment grows.

He laughs lightly, the sound having a calming and grounding effect on you somehow.

“Did you just make up that excuse to get her to leave then?” He teases, an easy smile lighting up his features. “Were you jealous, Kitkat?”

You growled and bared your teeth at him. “I am not. Not in a million fucking years. I actually did have something important to tell you I just-" you make a frustrated growling noise, grabbing at your hair with a hand. “I forgot.”

“Pretty sure you were just jealous. Tell me, did that kiss on the cheek I got did it for you? Are you gonna confess your undying love for me now, like in one of your romcoms? Are we at the climatic ending now, Karkat? Is our long and arduous courting dance finally coming to an end?” His smile grows, showing those faint dimples on his face and you’re torn between slapping his face away from you or grabbing his face and pulling him to you. 

The former wins out.

You push his face away from you, too close for comfort. “Fuck no. If this was a romantic comedy, it would probably the first and only romcom I’d truly hate with everything in my being.”

“Which isn’t much considering your height.” He quipped and your glare only gets him to chuckle again. “Look, why don’t we get some drinks and actually do some talking like you said? Looks less suspicious that way, I’m pretty sure she’s still somewhere around here watching me.”

The blond makes you turn around and descend the stairs, directing you to the refreshments table.

The two of you get some drinks, you picking a blue tropical drink with little umbrellas and fruits on top, while Dave gets a fucking strawberry milkshake. You give him an incredulous look and he shrugs.

The two of you make your way to the bar counter and take a sit on the spinning stools in front of it.

“Why the fuck did you choose a strawberry milkshake? I wouldn’t have pinned you as the type of guy to like them. Seriously, this is the third time I’ve seen you drinking one.” You question, gesticulating towards his choice of drink.

He chuckles at you. “Dude, I’ve been drinking strawberry milkshakes for far longer, you’ve just never noticed.” You bite your lip, feeling guilty again for that fact. You had accused him of ignoring your existence when all this time, you’re the one ignoring his existence while he was aware enough to pick up on certain things about you. “Plus, apple flavoured milkshakes taste like shit.” He continues on, shrugging.

“Oh yeah, what is it with you and apple juice, by the way? Is it a fetish or something? Do you get turned on at the idea of someone taking a dip inside a bathtub full of apple juice?” You laughed, cracking up at the horrified expression on his face.

“Dude, no. That’s like my worst fucking nightmare, what the fuck. You can’t just go around wasting apple juice like that, it’s the nectar of the gods. It doesn’t deserve to be subjected to the filth covering your body. Plus, did you even think about the fact that you’d literally look like you’re taking a bath in piss? It’s almost as bad as that two girls one cup video.”

You screw up your face in disgust at the imagery he’s giving you. “Ew, dude, what the fuck. Why would you even give me that mental image, that’s so disgusting.”

“Exactly.” He says through the straw on his milkshake as he takes a sip. “Maybe you’re the one with questionable kinks in the first place for even coming up with an idea like that. Do you need to see a counsellor, Karkat? Do you need me to set up an intervention for you and your sick, sick wet fantasies of imitating taking a bubble bath in piss?”

You shove him, aiming to knock him off his seat but he keeps his balance. “Oh my god, please shut your fucking mouth, I refuse to continue this line of conversation with you. I am literally ten seconds away from throwing you overboard just to get you to stop talking about this. Seriously, Dave. What the fuck.”

He laughs and the two of you continue to talk about the most random and strangest things you could. But whats-her-face (you literally mentally blocked your brain from learning her name) comes back around and you immediately scowl.

“You done? You look pretty done to me. Doesn’t look like any ‘important conversations’ is happening right now.” She inquires, leaning against the counter next to Dave.

“You do know that fucking off has a certain time limit right? And you’re not even fucking close to passing the halfway point of that time limit. So kindly fuck off.” You say rather harshly, crossing your arms.

“Whoa, protective much?” She quips back with an infuriatingly easy smile. “You’re not his boyfriend anyway, why are you getting all defensive about it?”

Your cheeks burn. Whether from anger or embarrassment, you couldn’t really care less at the moment. “You’re not his girlfriend either, are you?”

She makes eye contact with Dave before winking. “I could be.”

You get off your stool, leaving your drink behind on the counter. “Fine! You’re right, who the fuck am I to intrude on your sacred courting ritual. I’ll fuck off if you won’t.”

You think you hear Dave call after you, but his voice easily gets drowned out by the party chatter and the music surrounding you.

When you think you’re far away enough, you hug yourself, almost folding in on yourself.

You hate yourself.

You hate yourself because you can’t deny it anymore.

You like Dave Strider.


	15. So, Like, Your Instagram Followers Ship Us Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 20 - Easter Island, Chile

Remember that Prank Wars Week John announced yesterday? The one that no one took seriously?

Well, they started taking it seriously after the end of the festivities last night.

Sollux was baited out of his room by John when he boasted about beating Sollux’s high score in Galaga. The poor hacker boy steps into a piece of gum stuck in front of his suite. There was a note stuck to the front of his door as well that said ‘I TOLD YOU THE PRANK WARS WAS HAPPENING! YOU JUST GOT PRANKED, BRO!’ along with a photo from seventh grade of Sollux wearing a full body suit of a pink bunny for Halloween after losing a bet with Terezi about whether or not she can chug a whole bottle of faygo in under a minute.

Sollux swore to burn every iteration of the photo, physical or digital.

The poor hacker boy took a snap of him lifting his shoe to show the gum sticking from the soles of his shoe to the white floor of the ship. This was followed up with a snap of the note with the photo of him captioned ‘you’re fuckiing dead JH’.

The prank week begins.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Teams were assigned. There were two, Team Blue and Team Red. John had assigned them and was apparently planning the week-long event for a couple of days now.

The Blue Team consisted of Sollux, Nepeta, Equius, Feferi, Aradia, Eridan, Dave (John explained that switching him and Dave from their expected colours makes things much more unpredictable and interesting) and Rose.

The Red Team consisted of you, Terezi, Vriska, Kanaya, Tavros, Gamzee, John and Jade.

How the point system works is that each team gets a point if they manage to successfully prank one of the opposite team’s players. To make sure the legitimacy of the prank, you have to take a picture of it in and post it at the group chat John has made in snapchat. If someone figures out the prank before it happens and manages to avoid it (if possible) also earns a point that way. Whoever gets the most points wins the title of ‘Prank Wars Champions’. At this point, nobody gives a shit about the title, it’s all about revenge when people started pranking each other aboard the boat.

Hell, even the chaperones got wrapped up in the game when Dave pranked Dirk by putting a cardboard cut out of Pennywise the dancing clown and hid it inside his toilet bowl. A note behind the cut out said in red sharpie letters ‘you just got pranked bro, your turn’ along with a shitty sticker of hella jeff and sweet bro to indicate who the prankster was behind it.

Dirk posted a picture on his snap story of him holding up the cardboard cut out with a very unamused expression. It was captioned with ‘Wrong move, bro. You’re about to get a real Strider style beat down. Better watch your back.’

And so, Dirk and Jake joined the Red Team and Roxy and Jane joined the Blue Team.

John and Jane were the fiercest pranksters in each group, the two having duelled on who’s the better prankster for years now. It was both hilarious and terrifying to watch at the same time.

This all happens after your visit to the Easter Islands. But before you continue on this path, you’re _gonna have to fucking wait_.

Let’s rewind back to Easter Island and see what happens there.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

This is probably the worst sleep you’ve gotten in your whole time on the cruise.

After finally accepting the thing you’ve been ignoring and denying yourself, you found new thoughts kept you up at night.

You kept playing multiple moments inside your head between you and Dave, but the more you looked into it for clues of what Strider feels, the more delusional you felt.

“ _Stop assigning meaning when there is none_.”

He’s just being a good friend to you. You were just dumb enough to fall for every person that ever gives you their time of day and their kindness.

So when Roxy knocked none stop on your door, you were not ready to face the day’s activities.

Your cruise ship’s next stop had been to Easter Island, something that’s gotten everyone in your group excited. You all know about the Easter Island statues. You all just couldn’t wait to see it in person.

The first prank after John’s from last night had come from Terezi. It was when all of you had gathered for breakfast. She had invited Aradia to sit beside her and just before Megido sat down, Terezi slipped a whoopie cushion in her seat. A classic prank.

Aradia had given Pyrope a death glare as the blind girl laughed maniacally, all while snapping a picture of Aradia, her annoyed expression, and the whoopie cushion underneath her. Her photo had been captioned ‘TRUST NO ON3 TH3 G4M3 B3G1NS’. John high fives Terezi for managing to pull such an obvious and very classic prank.

Red Team: one point (you had all agreed that John’s first prank shouldn’t count since none of you were really taking it seriously back then).

After that entertaining start to the day, your group had packed up to visit Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. The ship had docked to port around seven in the morning and you all left somewhere around seven ten to seven fifteen. Basically, as soon as the ship was properly docked.

The first stop had been at the iconic Mo’ai statues. On your way there by car, you had had to listen to Jade and Eridan share conspiracy theories about the place. You had to put on earplugs the rest of the trip on the way there.

When you do finally arrive though, you had all started taking pictures, most with their phones or digital cameras. Dave, of course, was using his high-quality camera with too many buttons and setting and had to look into a small hole to take a picture.

When he pulled his camera off of his face, the group you were touring around with, Vriska, Jade, John, and Aradia had burst out laughing. You joined them too.

Strider had dumbly asked “what?”, expression getting increasingly annoyed when Vriska and John share a complicated array of a hand-shake.

Aradia pulled up her phone’s camera and showed Dave his face.

There was black ink around his right eye that he used to press them into the camera to see what he was taking a picture of. Vriska doubled over laughing when Dave consequently started to curse both of them out.

“Don’t leave your shit unattended, Strider!” Vriska had crowed, snapping a picture of the blond as he haphazardly tried to wipe the ink off of his face. She had captioned it ‘One point to slytherin!’

Red Team: two points.

You only spent thirty minutes taking scenic pictures around the Mo’ai. Apparently, you all had a lot to do during the day before the ship leaves at six p.m. sharp. Luckily though, using Feferi’s charm, she had gotten yet another tourist to take a group photo of you guys with the Mo’ai statues behind you.

The next destination had been Ana Kakenga, a sort of cavern with two openings. This got Aradia especially excited.

The cave wasn’t particularly big, but since it was kind of all of your first time inside one, you were all fascinated by the place. You swear you can just see stars in Aradia’s eyes. The ground had been mostly made up of soft soil and sands and the ceiling and walls all around you were rocky. It was also cooler inside there, away from the sun’s glare.

The other end of the cave ended out to sea. Huge and heavy rocks made the way down from the mouth of the cave and down into roaring waters. You each took turns posing in front of the place which took a little while (those poor other tourists that wanted to get a photo in front of the mouth of the cave too).

This time, you spent about an hour around the place. Mostly spent taking pictures around the place. But eventually, you headed back out into the land of the sun and continued on with your trek.

The next stop was at an equine place that offers guided tours through various routes around the place. Via horseback riding. You had all seen a couple of horses roaming around the place while touring the place. So it was adorable to see Nepeta teasing Equius about his love for horses while the big brute tried his best to hide his interest about the whole thing. Him trying to hide his genuine excitement for the horses was thrown out the window though as soon as you were lead to be shown the horses you’d be riding.

Your group was each given a horse and was assured that they were tamed and docile.

You were given a pretty horse with a dark chocolate brown coat and a little white diamond on its forehead. The guide told you that her name was Casey. John wanted to trade horses upon finding out its name but you had denied him purely out of spite and to annoy him.

And turns out, because there’s so many of you, you had to be grouped into pairs because there are only so many horses and there were other tourists wanting to go on a ride too. Meaning you had to share Casey with Strider.

It was… Awkward. The two of you hadn’t had a proper talk since you ran away from him last night after losing it in front of whats-her-face. But thankfully, after cracking a few horse jokes (to your dismay) to lighten the mood, the two of you eased back into smooth conversations.

Honestly, you might’ve enjoyed the whole ride better if you didn’t get distracted by Dave’s hands around your waist every few minutes. Since you’re the shorter one, you were made to sit in front of Dave and you’re mind can’t get over the fact that you’re in very close proximity with him. For a prolonged period of time. Actually, this is probably the closest you’ve gotten to him for hours at a time.

Because oh yeah, this ride lasted for _hours_. So your back was intimately pressed up against his chest for a prolonged period of time.

The cool breeze that passed you by actually helped with cooling you down from the sun’s heat. It wasn’t sticky and gross like on all your other stops before. But this only means that you’re hyper-aware of the heat of your own blush and the heat where you and Strider were forced to make contact.

You honestly remember very little of the places you passed by on your ride up to Terevaka, the highest point in Easter Island. But then again, you mostly just passed by vibrant open green fields. Nothing really exciting to keep your attention away from Strider.

Terevaka offered a view of practically the whole island from where you stood. Rolling green hills and wide open fields, it was a pretty sight to behold.

The air was fresh and the winds were cool. Your whole group took a moment to breathe in the beauty of nature.

You were only off your horses for a little while to take pictures of the place. You had been standing around and thinking as you looked out at the breathtaking view in front of you when you heard your name called out.

You quickly turn around, “what?” at the tip of your tongue when you heard the characteristic sound of a camera snapping a photo. Dave lowers his camera from his face and looks down at the product of his picture. A smile creeps up his face.

“Can I see it?” You asked, approaching the blond. When you moved to look over his shoulder and at the camera, he moved it away from you. You frowned at him and crossed your arms.

“Nah, dude. Just wait till you see it on my instagram account.” He tells you, sticking his tongue out at you.

Embarrassment burns through you. “You know I look through your account?”

He chuckles. “I know you liked one of the photos I posted of you.” He informs you with a knowing smirk. “I know I get thousands of likes at a time, but they’re usually over a stretch of time. The butterfly one? I saw your account name pop up in my notifications when you liked it.”

You hope your blush isn’t as obvious on your face as it feels like. “Oh.” Is all you manage to say. He chuckles at you.

Afterwards, your guides instructed for all of you to get back on your horses to make the ride back. After the little talk you had up at Verevaka, you had felt uncharacteristically shy about riding the same horse with Dave.

Silence settled between you, unlike your loud chatting on the way there. But he seemed content with it, and even though you found the silence uncomfortable, you stayed quiet. You simply listened to your other friends’ quiet chatter and the whooshing noise when a gust of wind blows by.

At some point in the journey, Dave rests his head on your shoulders. The weight of him against you stays with you for far longer than you’d like. Even when you had arrived back where you started and the two of you finally had to separate as you got off the horse.

The guides let you pet the horses for a little while to say goodbye and afterwards, you’re all on your way to lunch. It’s past twelve when your group got back to where you started.

Your group goes to a local restaurant around the place. Everything had been going normally when a fucking mariachi band pops out from the corner and comes over to your table, much to everyone's surprise.

They flock around Vriska who’s red in the face in embarrassment as Terezi cackles wildly beside her. The band starts to play a fucking birthday song dedicated to the spider girl and halfway through it, she buried her face into her hands and groaned about how she’s going to disembowel whoever was responsible for this.

You see Eridan snickering to Feferi as he snaps a photo of the mariachi band singing Vriska a lively birthday song when it isn’t even her birthday. Checking the snap he sent to the group chat, the photo was captioned ‘happy early glubbin birthday spider bitch.’ in purple lettering.

Blue Team: one point.

You didn’t get to enjoy your desserts after the meal because Vriska tried to throw the free cake she got as a birthday special at Eridan, who managed to duck in time only for it to hit a poor waiter walking behind his chair. Needless to say, you all got kicked out of the restaurant.

Thankfully, there’s a nearby cafe, Mikafe, and you stayed for a little bit there to get your sweet cravings satisfied. The ice cream was great.

After that, you head to Hanga Roa Harbour and rent some snorkelling gear from one of the diving centers around the place.

It was a perfect time too as it was high tide. There was plenty to see underwater and Dave had brought out his special waterproof camera for the occasion. You all spent a bit around the water, looking down and at the coral reefs, the place provides.

There were a few fishes here and there, colourful little ones that definitely excited Feferi. Your group even chanced a sighting of a turtle once. You spent about a good hour there before your group has basically seen all there is without going too far out into the sea.

After getting all dried up and clothed once again, you guys move onto the next destination (this is probably the most activities you guys have crammed into one day).

The most time you spent on is at the Anakena beach. The sand was white and sparkled under the sun, the waters were crystal clear, and the grass was green. It was a beautiful sight and your group didn’t waste time getting into the water. Some of you didn’t bother to get changed into swimwear again though and just decided to have a walk around and marvel at the beauty of the place.

“You don’t plan on taking a dip, Vantas?” Strider questions you as you walked along the treeline, palm trees giving you a little reprieve from the sun’s rays. He walks beside you, the camera still in hand.

“You don’t look like you plan on taking a dip either.” You comment, giving him a once over to make your point. He chuckles.

“True.” The two of you walk for a little while in silence. “Hey, so, I was curious…” He starts after a little bit.

You raise an eyebrow, pushing your hands into your jean pockets. “Yeah?”

It takes him a few beats before sighing and spitting out his question bluntly. “If you and Terezi never kissed… Like, who was your first kiss then?”

You keep your eyebrows raised. “Why are you curious about this?”

Your heart does a flip inside your chest when you think you see a faint flush rising in his cheeks. Your mind is quick to rationalize it away though- it’s just really hot out today (like any day in summertime) and he’s pale as shit so overheating and flushing because of it is probably really easy.

“Um… I guess I was just curious? I mean, Terezi was my first kiss and I was hers so I was wondering…” He shrugs. “Actually, never mind, that was a completely stupid question to ask. You don’t need to tell me, that was a creepy thing of me to ask anyway.”

This somehow makes you chuckle. “It’s not really a problem? I’m pretty sure you’ve asked John at some point who his first kiss was.”

He groans at that. “That fucker is so tight-lipped about who his first kiss was. Like holy shit, it’s not even that big of a deal?? He acts like it’s some top secret conspiracy shit he’ll get assassinated for by the secret service if he lets the information get out.”

You can’t help but snicker. “There’s a reason for that.” You simply say. Dave gives you a very curious expression.

“Really? What?”

“He’s embarrassed about who his first kiss was.” You say casually. And then, “I mean, he was my first kiss and I was his. I don’t blame him for being embarrassed by the fact that his first kiss was with tweenage Karkat. Fucker was embarrassing by default.”

Dave actually flicks his shades up onto his head so you can more fully see the utter shock on his face. “No fucking way. Really? How?”

You laughed at his reaction. The exact one you were expecting. “I met John at the start of middle school. Around the end of eighth grade, I realized I liked him and manned the fuck up and asked him out. He floundered around for a response and what he told me was that ‘he wasn’t sure if he was into guys’ so I just… Kind of asked him if he wanted to find out? By kissing me. And we just kind of… Went for it?” You explained, laughing at the memory. It’s a fond one, embarrassing, yes, but it’s one of the memories that sticks out in your mind. You just find the whole situation completely cliched and hilariously awkward for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds.

“Holy fucking shit.” You hear Dave mutter under his breath, eyes still were blown wide and staring down at the sand. You laughed again. It’s hilarious how this fact seems to have literally blown Strider’s mind.

“In the end, he concluded that he wasn’t into guys and clumsily turned me down. It was awkward as shit between us for the last few weeks of school. But after summer vacation and we met again at the start of grade nine, he acted like nothing had happened between us at all- which I’m glad for. I really like John as a friend, he has a way of bringing everyone together in his own goofy way. Just like how he organized this whole prank wars week thing as a group activity for all of us.” You mused, kicking the sand with your shoe.

“Oh my god. I can’t fucking believe you got to kiss my best bro waaaaay before me.” You stop in your tracks at that and it’s your turn to stare at him with wide eyes.

“Wait, what?”

He smirks at you, the shock fading from his system. “Yeah, dude. It took three years for me to admit my feelings for John when he decided to go to a different middle school. I unironically kissed him during one of our sleepovers during the summer vacation before high school when I found out we were going to be going to the same high school. The heat of the moment type of thing, I was too overjoyed to make rational decisions."

You raise your hand in exasperation. “Oh my god! Has everyone in our friend group literally kissed John fucking Egbert at some point?!” The two of you had resumed walking again.

“Wait, what?”

You cross your arms and huff. “Terezi told me she kissed John during seven minutes in heaven at our eighth-grade sleepover party to celebrate the end of the year purely because John was confident that she didn’t have the guts to do anything to him during their seven minutes in the closet. Vriska has obviously full on made out with the guy which was honestly a mistake, like their whole relationship in sophomore year. Tavros admitted during a truth or dare session with me and Gamzee that he pecked John on the lips by accident in freshman year when he tripped and stumbled into him- so even Tavros’ first kiss was with Egbert.” You count each kiss on a hand. “And then Kanaya admitted that John kissed her once after confessing that he liked her sometime in ninth grade- things became awkward between the two of them. _Even Rose has kissed John_. We all remember that disastrous decision to play spin the bottle after raiding Ms. Lalonde’s easily accessible wine cabinet during the summer before junior year. And then there was that nasty trick Vriska pulled when John and Eridan got into a heated debate about harry potter and she pushed their heads together and basically forced both of them to kiss each other in an attempt to shut both of them up.”

Dave looks like you just blew his mind for the seventh time that day. “What the fuck. How does _John_ of all people get so much fuckin action? This is the real conspiracy that needs solving, man. Forget JFK’s assassination, forget ancient aliens showing up in cave paintings, _forget cloned celebrities made to distract the public from the shitty economy we have today._ I want to know how John Egbert of all people has probably kissed the most people out of any of us.”

The two of you burst out laughing at this very sudden and very shocking discovery.

The two of you continue to chat about you and your friends’ various relationship successes and failure for a little while until Jake rounds all of you up to pack to head to your last destination.

The last destination happens to be Ahu Tahai as the sun was setting in the distance. It’s five by the time you get there and you all linger there with a couple of other tourists, watching the sun set over the horizon.

Your friends take some last pictures around the island and you take a seat on the edge of the ledge the statues were sitting on. You watch setting sun quietly, and Strider takes a seat beside you.

Quietly, the two of you passively watch the view, not saying a word to one another. Simply taking in everything and each other’s presence.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Nightly routines done, like showering, brushing your teeth, and updating your father, you retire to bed.

And just like any other night, you open up instagram first to check Strider’s account. And just like he told you, he’s uploaded yet another photo of you on his account.

It’s the one he took of you in Verevaka, the one time he brought your attention to him to take a picture. You didn’t expect it to look this good though.

The whole photo had a deep orange tinge to it, the rolling green hills behind you looking a little more like lime, yellowish green. Your form was kind of dim and a little hard to distinguish, the bright light of the sun and the subsequent lens flare it creates putting the rest of you in shadow. The harsh glow of the sun just peeking out from your the side of your head casts a ray of gold across your eyes and almost blocking it out entirely, a weirdly nice effect that fits the whole photo. It’s also the first photo of you where you were facing the camera head on, compared to the previous photos that showed your back or your side profile.

It seems he posted this one as soon as dinner finished and he disappeared into his cabin for the rest of the night. It’s been up for a couple of hours and has already garnered about four k likes.

Curiously, your eyes wander down to the comments section. You never bothered to look at it before, but a word catches your attention.

 _Boyfriend_.

The latest comment in the couple of hundreds left on the photo was one asking if the person in the said photo was his _boyfriend_.

You click to expand the rest of the comments section and quickly scroll and skim through it.

_Is he your boyfriend??_

_Your boyfriend is so cute! Why are all the pretty guys gay nowadays? I’m so jealous_

_Are you guys dating???_

_Is the guy in the photo your boyfriend?? He’s like one of the only people you showcase in all of your nature-themed pictures the two of you have got to be dating right??_

_Who’s your boyfriend?? Can we get an account shoutout of him?_

_When your boyfriend is a photographer and takes pretty pictures of you #boyfriendgoals_

_Your so lucky to have such a cute boyfriend!_

Your heart hammers in your chest the more you scroll up the comments section. Basically, all of them are either asking if the two of you are dating, if you’re his boyfriend, or just assume that you’re a couple. You scroll through basically all of the comments until you hit the top.

This just makes you so frustrated and this definitely isn’t helping with your feelings either. You hate how this makes your chest constrict and your stomach twist and turn. You hate it.

In the end, you just close your phone and decide to shove it into the back of your mind. It means nothing. It means nothing and you refuse to lose any more sleep over it. You plan on enjoying this goddamn trip, unrequited crush be damned.

You do not dream of vague poems and meaningless metaphors or aviator sunglasses and bleached blond hair.

Instead, you dream of a black void in space, endless corridors of metal, and a boy in red waiting at the end of a black tunnel.

But the strangest of all is how much he makes you feel like you’ve finally come home.


	16. A Montage Of Pranks And Other Misadventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 21, 22, 23, & 24 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite parts to write I had fun doing it so I hope you have fun reading it XD

After the trip to Easter Island, Prank Wars was at full force the next day.

It starts off early in the morning before breakfast even starts. John sends a snap of him in the bathroom with a shampoo bottle in hand and bleached blond hair almost rivalling Strider’s. It was aptly captioned ‘alright who did this?’ Sollux was quick to reply to the group chat with a picture of his middle finger and a response that said ‘karma biitch’ which was followed by a picture of him with an incredulous expression and an incredulous hand gesture (think of the confused black girl meme) and was captioned ‘al2o what kiind of di2gu2tiing human are you two take 2hower2 iin the morniing?’

Dave was also quick to reply with a blurry photo of _something_ saying that there can only be one person in the group with bleached blond hair and to meet John at the roof for a duel to the death to see who is the superior blond.

John reminds Strider that Vriska has blond hair almost the same shade as he does. Dave is quick to retract his challenge of a death match.

As this exchange was happening, Dirk received the pennywise clown prank pulled by Dave. And so that solidified Dirk as a Red Team member.

Blue Team: three points.

And the chaos continues to ensue even during breakfast.

Dirk had brought donuts over to the group, offering one to Dave, And Rose first while Roxy plucked one off right off the bat. He then placed it onto the table. Roxy and Dave bit into it with no qualms about it but Rose held hers while she eyed Dirk with a raised eyebrow. The two who bit into it proceeds to choke and spit out the offending donuts, catching the attention of everyone at the table reaching for a donut as well.

“Holy fuck, Dirk! You dirty little bastard! You filled them with mayo! _Ew_.” Roxy exclaims, wiping the white donut filling from her mouth. Dave was stuffing his mouth with skittles to get rid of the taste.

Dirk shrugged. “I did say to watch your back, little bro. You’re just a sad casualty in this, Rox.”

“What the fuck, bro?? I didn’t expect you to pull a prank on me _that_ quickly.” Dave whined while Rose smirked, setting her donut back into the box.

“You knew I’d find it suspicious that you’d offer me a donut but asked me anyway because it would be obvious if you just offered one to Dave, correct? It would make him more likely to take one without any hesitation.” Rose mused, sharing a knowing smirk with the older Strider.

“Always was the smartest of the Strilalonde siblings, Rose.” He simply replies with an approving nod her way.

“Same sentiments to you, brother. The smarter one between the only two Striders I know.” Rose glanced over at Dave while he stuck his tongue out at her. She chuckles at the childish display.

Roxy and Dave both crossed their arms and pouted the rest of the morning while some of your friends who witnessed the whole thing go down laughed and teased them about it.

That solidified Roxy as a Blue Team member.

Red Team: three points.

That wasn’t the only prank that breakfast though. Another group who woke up later and had brunch had some entertaining pranks happen to them as well.

Jade had posted to the group chat with a picture of her, a grim-looking Equius and Nepeta holding a towel out to him in the background. It looked like his shirt was soaked with milk and the photo was captioned ‘he was so disappointed haha.’ When asked about exactly what she did, she said she apparently borrowed a special glass from John’s repertoire of pranking materials, a glass that when lifted up to drink, would drip to the end and spill on the person instead of going into their mouth.

Red Team: four points.

You had hoped to go through the day without getting pranked, but you suppose that’s too much to ask.

As you were opening the door to your cabin, the books you haven’t returned to the library come tumbling down from the ceiling and hitting you square in the head. You cursed really loudly when they made an impact. You’re questioning your like for hardcover books now.

Dave had burst out laughing at your misery, trying to cover in his giggles with both hands. The two of you were going to have another movie date (nope wrong word. Movie hang-outs is a better descriptor) inside your bedroom. But instead, you fell for one of the traps.

Examining the ceiling, you realized that there was duct tape clinging just above your door with a string attached so that when you pushed the door open, the string would be stretched and pull the tape holding the books off of the wall and let them come tumbling down on the poor person at the door. That person being you.

A quick look at one of your books and you find a sticky note. ‘so sorry about this, karkitty!’ it said in green ink with a reflective sticker of a cat at the corner.

“Oh my fuck this is fucking ridiculous.” You groaned as Dave snapped a photo of you dragging a hand down your face. You glare at him and attempt to hit him on the head with the books in your hand.

“Holy shit, are you gonna get revenge, Kitkat? You’ve been attacked, and it was fucking hilarious to see.” Dave spoke in between fits of laughter as he avoided your hits. You eventually stop.

You roll your eyes. “Now I’m practically obligated to. One of your teammates is definitely going to get hit soon.” You narrow your eye at him specifically and he raises his hand in defeat.

“Truce? I won’t prank you and you won’t prank me?” He offers putting forth his pinky finger to you.

You scoffed and slapped his hand away. “Hell no. You’re definitely on my hit list sometime this week Strider. You can’t escape your fate. It’s predetermined now.”

He smirks and puts his hands into his pocket, stance relaxed. “Fine, dude. You know this goes both ways, right? That means you’re not safe from my sick future pranks either.”

Again, you roll your eyes and wave for him to come into your room. “Whatever. I’m hiding out the rest of the day in here for now. Not stepping out, this whole ship has just become a war zone.”

You begin cleaning up the shit set up on your door when Dave comes up behind you and pulls the duct tape free from the wall, the one you were struggling to reach for because again, short height. “Mind if I join you in your little paradise of romcoms, Vantas?”

“Depends.” You smirk. “Do you plan on being an ass throughout all of my movies, Strider?”

A beat of hesitance and he replies. “Nope. Promise, cross my heart, stick a needle in my eye, all that bullshit.”

You snicker. You know he’s going to be an ass either way but you let him stay. You lock your door before scrolling through movies to watch; Dave let you pick first because you just got pranked. How sweet of him.

Blue Team: four points.

The two of you spend the day watching and reading and before long, Dave has to leave for his own cabin for the night. You call him a shitbag on his way out. He flips you off before closing the door.

Looking through the snapchat group, you find that there were a couple more pranks that happened throughout the day.

Feferi had set up a tripwire in Tavros’ room and he quite literally fell for it.

Blue Team: five points.

Gamzee had shaken up a soda and offered it to Roxy, who apparently hadn’t learned from her mistake of trusting people who offered her food. Of any kind. It exploded in her face and all over breakfast lounge floor.

Red Team: five points.

Eridan had posted a picture of him and his hand that contained some type of substance. A quick glance at the caption told you it was apparently lube, and someone had filled his hand sanitizer inside his bathroom with it. Vriska replied saying ‘at least now you’re prepared to have some disgusting gay sex with our hacker boy ;;;;;;;;)’

Red Team: six points.

Jake posted a short video clip of him freaking out while his phone played despacito in full volume. Apparently, he says it won’t stop no matter what he did. When asked if he tried turning it on and off, he said that was literally the first thing he tried. Roxy happily replies with ‘alexa play despacito!’

Blue Team: six points.

Terezi sends a snap of her room saying that something feels wrong: she keeps bumping into furniture she usually wouldn’t with her acute sense of spatial awareness using her other weird senses that isn’t her eyes. Aradia comes forward and says she moves everything in her room an inch to the left.

Blue Team: seven points.

And the day ends with Blue Team in the lead. For now.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The next day, everyone is paranoid. And it’s honestly quite hilarious to watch. Nobody would accept anything offered to them that wasn’t in their group.

In the end, someone did fall for a food-based prank.

Your group was having breakfast at a fancy restaurant that morning. Meaning it was servers who served the food for you. But apparently, one of them were bribed to help in a prank.

Starting early in the morning, Jade chokes on her orange juice and spits it out onto the table, grossing everyone out. She claims that what was in her drink was definitely not orange and someone messed with her beverage. She guesses that it was literally just kraft cheddar cheese powder mixed with water. After putting it on snap, Jane apologizes profusely although she does admit that it had been her.

Blue Team: eight points.

And the day continues to go on like that. Tavros, proving he could actually be pretty devious as hell, had printed out an official looking coupon and handed them around to strangers all over the ship. On the coupon, it said that you could get a free meal at one of the restaurants around the ship if you called the number below. The catch?

It was Rose’s phone number.

Multiple calls later, Rose sends a black screen with the captions ‘Okay, who did this?’ in purple letters. Everyone had asked her what happened and she explained that random strangers were calling her asking if “this was the Crown Grill?”

Vriska posted a photo of Tavros absolutely losing his shit in laughter while he hung out with Terezi and John and Vriska. That pretty much solved Rose’s mystery pranker.

Honestly, everyone was shocked at how well planned and executed the prank was, especially coming from Tavros. He pouted and complained about how our group doesn’t give him enough credit.

Red Team: seven points.

Kanaya, after going unpranked for so long, finally gets hit.

She posts a picture of her closet that’s filled with a bunch of ugly christmas sweaters or general clothing she’d never be caught dead wearing them. Rose sends a reply photo of her winking, piles of Maryam’s clothing on the bed behind her. ‘It had to be done, darling. I’m going to need a kiss for you to retrieve your dresses back.’

Blue Team: nine points.

Around just after noon, Dave is back in your room to hang out like he usually does on lazy days (if you can call then lazy days) like this. The two of you had been watching a movie and you’ve been eyeing his phone of the coffee table ever since he put it there. An idea for a prank had popped into your mind while you watched the movie and you’ve been rummaging your mind for excuses to get Strider out of the room so you can get up close and personal with his phone…

“Hey, Dave?” You mumble halfway through the movie you were watching (he wanted to watch one of the saw films for his movie pick).

He hums in acknowledgement of you and you glance at him from the corner of your eye. You play with the corners of the throw pillow you’re hugging.

“I’m getting kinda fuckin hungry here. Can you go get us popcorn?” You asked, almost in a whiny tone.

“Go get it yourself, Vantas.” You uncurl your foot from under you and kick him on the side. “Ow! What?!”

“I’m kicking you out prematurely if you don’t get me popcorn.”

He raised a brow at you before sighing and actually getting up and off his ass. “Alright, assface, what type do you want?” You blink at him for a while. You did _not_ expect that to actually work.

“Oh um…” You think for a moment. “I feel like having the caramel ones.”

You can ask him about why he was willing to get you popcorn so easily later. For now, you watched him make his way across the room before leaving it entirely, the door closing with a quiet click.

As soon as he’s gone, you dive for his phone. Passcode. Shit.

You try one, two, three, four just because it’s the most common password, even though there’s a low chance of it actually working-

The fucker actually unlocks.

Your logic had been that because it was the most common password, nobody would actually try assuming it wouldn’t work so they skip it and try other combinations, so of course, Dave would use it for ~ironic~ purposes. You… You didn’t expect to know Dave this well.

Still, you’re on a mission with a time limit.

So, you do some tapping on his phone and set up an alarm for him, set to go off at three in the morning for tonight. You put in a reminder that says ‘wake up it’s satan’. It’s cheesy but it’s sure to freak him out when it’s three in the morning and his sleep was just rudely interrupted by his alarm.

You quickly exit out of the alarm clock and wipe any evidence of you being on his phone before closing it and setting it down on the coffee table just like before.

You crawl back to your seat at the corner of the room and sink into the leather cushions, holding the pillow close to your chest. Your heart is beating wildly in your chest at what you have just successfully done.

After a few minutes of waiting, Dave comes back with a bag of caramel popcorn for you and throws it in your direction. It almost hits you in the face.

He settles back in his seat on the opposite side of the couch. You eye him curiously from the side every now and again. He clearly notices and flips his shades up to look directly at you. “What?”

“I was just wondering…” You start, opening the bag of popcorn on your lap. “How come you easily got persuaded to grab popcorn for me?”

He raises an eyebrow at you. “Why not? I can’t be a nice person without being threatened of having my head separated from my body by a pint sized midget?”

You snort and roll your eyes. “No. I guess I just found it weird, you’re usually an ass about these types of things.”

He smirks. “You think I was being nice to you with some type of ulterior motive, don’t you?”

What’s that? Oh, that’s definitely just the heat of the summer burning you up. But your room is conditioned? And you’re not wearing a sweater? Well, fuck you too.

“No.” You say a little too quickly.

He chuckles at you but simply brings his foot up on the couch and stretches out, taking literally eighty percent of the space. He continues watching.

He never denied it though.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

By the third day sailing through the sea from Easter Island before you get to your next destination, the teams are even in terms of points.

Red Team: eleven points.

Blue Team: eleven points.

Your alarm clock prank worked wonderfully because when you woke up and checked snapchat, the most recent snap in the group chat had been of Strider’s phone, brightly lit up with the alarm notification saying ‘wake up it’s satan’ and was aptly captioned in big bright bold letters ‘WHAT THE FUCK’. It was sent at three in the morning.

You had snapped a photo of your couch across from you and captioned it ‘TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE ON MY HIT LIST. HOW WAS YOUR SLEEP, MOTHERFUCKER?’

That had brought your team a point and made the teams even in number of points.

Paranoia increases with your group. The groups have completely splintered off from each other and none of the members were hanging out with any members of the opposite group. Dear god, what have you done, John?

And to your disappointment, this meant that Strider avoided you too after the attack you made. Which was hilarious and satisfying by the way. But you’re still kind of bummed out at having to spend the day mostly alone.

You had made your way back to the library to return the three books you’ve completed with Strider and looked around the place to look for more.

In the end, you picked up five more books off the shelf. You decided to have two books for you to read independently when Strider isn’t around to read with you. That’s the other three you got.

You read most of the day away while even more pranks happened outside your door.

At some point, Feferi sends a snap of her shiny bar of soap, complaining about someone painting it with clear nail polish. Jade takes the blame for this one.

Red Team: twelve points.

Kanaya had poured a shit ton of fruit loops and cheerios in Rose’s bathtub and out of pure spite, Rose actually takes a selfie of herself _in_ the tub of cereal. Seriously, Rose is probably the only other person who can rival you in terms of doing stupid shit for the sake of spite and surprising the other person or just proving them wrong.

Red Team: thirteen points.

Jake took a photo of his room where his whole floor has been covered by red solo cups filled with water. On one of the cups was a sticky note at the bottom that simply said ‘Have a drink -Janey’.

Blue Team: twelve points.

Gamzee orders a piece of mousse cake covered completely with chocolate syrup for an after dinner dessert and was thoroughly disappointed to find that the inside was not in fact cake but triangle pieces of cleaning sponges. Equius high fives with Nepeta at the table.

Blue Team: thirteen points.

Jane took a photo of herself in front of the mirror with dark blueish liquid dripping around her and staining her towel a blue colour as well. Her hair was sticking to her face and was covered in a similar blue colour. ‘Alright, who invited the Cool-Aid man to my bathroom?’ was the caption.

John sends a photo of his hand showing an opened Cool-Aid juice powder mix. ‘you mean this guy? :B’

Red Team: fourteen points.

Vriska takes a picture of her hand with sticky stuff sticking around it and towards her door handle. The caption let you all know it had been clear glue. This was followed by a sticky note stuck behind her door with the words ‘stuck in a sticky situation spider8itch?’ in red marker and another hella jeff and sweet bro sticker.

Blue Team: fourteen points.

The one time you do get out of your room is when you go to have dinner with everyone else. You wish you could’ve just brought dinner home to your bedroom and eaten there.

You weren’t exactly paying attention, your senses dulled at the thoughts floating by inside your head. You’ve been kind of foggy the whole day, actually. So when you were offered a piece of gum by Aradia, you didn’t think much of it. You’ve kind of forgotten about the prank wars happening around you since you haven’t checked your phone since this morning. You’ve mostly been mindlessly reading all day.

When you take a bite out of the gum though, again, not completely paying attention to your surroundings, you spit out the offending item as soon as you taste salt in your mouth. You look up to see Aradia giggling and snapping a photo of your glare.

She had given you a play-doh shaped piece of gum.

You chugged down your juice to get rid of the taste while flipping Megido off the whole time.

Blue Team: fifteen points.

You retire to your bedroom afterwards. You’re not exactly looking forward to tomorrow.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

More pranks happened. Shocker. And yet again, you didn’t get to spend time with Strider once more.

Roxy hacked John’s laptop computer and changed his password to dickdestroyer5785 so he couldn’t access it until Roxy was finished making him run around the ship looking for nonexistent clues to his new password.

Blue Team: sixteen points.

At some point during the day, you had helped Terezi break into Nepeta’s room and stuck sticky notes at every available surface. She was none too pleased to open her door to an array of colourful post-it notes covering her room. You left her a pack of cat stickers that contained a sorry note from both of you.

Red Team: fifteen points.

Jake managed to get close to Sollux’s precious laptop while Jade coaxed him out to the arcade to play some tekken with him (more like challenged him to the point he couldn’t say no). He pulled each keyboard letter off of the laptop, put it in a ziplock bag, and hid it inside his toilet. Sollux was quick to retaliate once he found his keyboard keys.

Red Team: sixteen points.

Sollux, in a span of a few hours, had hacked Dirk’s laptop and installed a VNC on his computer to allow him remote access to it. After fucking with him for a couple of minutes by forcing his laptop to search up smuppet and my little pony porn, he finally let go of Dirk’s computer with the message ‘me22 wiith the be2t diie liike the re2t’. He’s such a fucking nerd, quoting from a hacker based movie.

Blue Team: seventeen points.

Vriska paid a staff member to fake propose to Feferi. She had baited her out to have lunch with just all of the girls in an attempt to make it look like there wasn’t anything malicious going on. She had stupidly accepted.

A random guy, a wait staff about the same age as all of you, had suddenly gotten on his knee and proposed to Feferi, with a whole planned speech about their nonexistent relationship. Vriska had cackled in the background while the poor Peixes fumbled with her words in trying to turn the guy down with the shole restaurant making ‘aw’ noises at them.

Fucking brutal.

Red Team: seventeen points.

At this same girls only lunch, Jade had had a server slip an ice cube with a piece of mentos inside Aradia’s drink. So after the whole debacle with Feferi and the fake marriage proposal humiliation prank, Aradia’s glass of coke shoots up and sprays her, and the table (but mostly her) when the ice containing the mentos finally melted.

Red Team: eighteen points.

Nepeta, in retaliation to what you and Terezi had done (which she had whined about the long process it took to take off every piece of post-it notes she could see), had sprayed lemon scented febreze all around the blind girl’s room. She had done it just enough to overwhelm Terezi’s senses and keep her out of her cabin with the door open until the scent left her room.

This prank wars is really bringing out the inner sadists in your friends and you’re beginning to worry a little bit.

Blue Team: eighteen points.

At the end of the teams were still even in the number of points.

Tomorrow is going to decide who wins this prank wars week as it’s the seventh day this whole shit has been happening.

For once, you’re just happy this is all finally coming to an end, things can go back to normal afterwards. You can hang out with Strider again without being paranoid of the other pulling some type of prank on each other.

You’re also glad that you’ll be docking at Coquimbo tomorrow so there won’t be as many pranks (hopefully) since you’ll all be leaving the ship to be tourists again.

The score is this:

Red Team: twenty points.

Blue Team: twenty points.


	17. Take A Look At This Trainwreck Who Doesn't Know How To Communicate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 25 - Coquimbo, Chile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man.
> 
> You guys are going to hate me for this.
> 
> **Edit 12/18/18  
> O h m a n t h e r e ' s a n i m a g e.

Just like any other morning when you’ve docked at a new port city, Lalonde is knocking on your door, loud and very enthusiastic enough to work as an alarm to get you up and going.

Your group go through the usual daily routine of having breakfast together before heading out to the city.

Your first stop was at the Plaza De Armas of Coquimbo. It was a wide space with an array of things around the place, with all sorts of shops and vendors around the place. Your group splits up once more to have their own tours of where they want to go first and what they want to see around the place.

Most of it had just been shops and a few interesting buildings with unusual architecture. You take a couple of photos here and there and buy souvenirs like you usually do. The day was starting off refreshingly cool, the breeze blowing by enough to keep you cool from the sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky either.

You spend the first few hours there, about an hour or two just strolling around the place. There’s nothing much to really note about the place, but you’re thankfully glad that no pranks have happened yet. Hopefully, none will occur anytime during this trip. The pranking kind of got old at the last three days of the week.

The main attraction of the City is a tall cross at the top of the hill. Otherwise, there wasn’t really all that much to see around the place.

Your group heads there afterwards and tour around the place. It was pretty interesting to see but the main thing most tourists do around the monument is taking an elevator up to the very top of the thing that provides some fantastic views of the city.

And so, your group does just that. The view from above was definitely worthwhile, the houses looking like tiny toys beneath you. Your group crowded around the floor to ceiling window that looked out to the city. A thick bar separates you from actually getting too near the window for safety reasons.

You enjoyed the view, but your eyes keeps on skittering back to Dave who’s practically taken the job as the photographer for the whole group. An idea pops into your head and you swallow thickly as you prepared to suggest it to him.

“Hey, Dave?”

“Mmn?” He makes a humming noise in acknowledgement of you.

“You’re always the one taking pictures of everyone, what about you? Don’t you like… Want pictures to keep of yourself around the places we’ve been in too?” You ask, carefully keeping your tone casual and nonchalant. Like you don’t really care.

He pauses taking pictures beside you and looking over at you, a seemingly serious expression on his face. “I mean… I never thought about taking pictures of myself? Plus, someone has to do the job of being behind the camera. I don’t really mind either way. Plus, I enjoy taking pictures of everyone else anyway.”

You glance his way and bite your lip. “I can man the camera for a little bit. I mean, I know it’s probably expensive as shit and I can’t ever do the type of shit you do to take brilliant photos, but I can at least take a _normal_ enough photo. You don’t have enough with the rest of our friends. I promise I’ll take care of it but I totally understand if you don’t even want me to touch it at all.” You explain to him, trying your best to avoid the urge to play with your shirt, a nervous tick of yours.

He shrugs his shoulders and pulls the strap from around his neck and offers the fancy black camera to you. You’re a little surprised, but you take it from him and put the strap around your neck.

Then, he moves around behind you and shows you how to properly hold the camera, adjusting your hands and fingers to the right places. He then continues to tell you the basics of how to use the camera, along with the zoom in and zoom out feature where you just have to twist and turn the lens in front. He shows you how to activate and deactivate the flash, how to make the picture you just took appear on the screen so you can get a proper look at the outcome and how long you should press the button for. Long the button for long enough and it takes a quick succession of photos after one another.

You manage to learn all of that despite his close proximity to you, his every little touch distracting along with the voice so near your ears. You take experimental photos and show him what you’ve learned before he pats you on the back and tells you that you’re the official photographer for the rest of the day. He wants you to take as many pictures as you want, he’s got a huge memory space and a long battery lifespan.

You point the camera at him and he gives you a goofy little side smile, hands in his pockets, elbow leaning against the bar, and his whole stance generally relaxed. You snap a photo of him.

You think you understand now why he likes taking pictures so much. They’re little physical captures of memories. They immortalize things, little moments that your mind will eventually forget or change over time.

You know you’ll never be able to sear the way his lips quirk up into a genuine smile into your mind as a picture would.

You feel like a wave of warmth surrounds your body. The kind of feeling you get when getting into a nice hot tub after a long tiring day.

And so, you continued to carry the camera from then on. You take pictures of Dave laughing with your group of friends, take pictures of the rare moments he shares platonic affection with John, and take pictures of him and Rose doing goofy poses together.

Eventually, your group leaves the place to finally go get some lunch around twelve thirty to one in the afternoon.

Your group enjoys a nice meal together before finally up and leaving for your final destination of the day. Where you’ll spend the rest of the day up until five before you have to go back to the cruise ship before it leaves at six p.m.

Your group visits the Totoralillo, a strangely shaped beach. At some point along its shore, the sand narrows out until there’s seawater on either side of you. The little strip of sand leads along to a bigger portion of the beach surrounded by water. An almost island with a little strip of sand keeping it connected to the main beach area.

Your group had changed to take a dip in the water once again while you simply pulled some shorts and flip-flops on, the camera still around your neck.

The sand was a clean white and soft under your feet. The water was a pretty bluish turquoise colour, clear enough to see a little bit of the sand through it.

At some point, you take a hipster-like photo of your feet covered in the sand just a wave was coming in.

You also take pictures of your friends goofing around the beach. Aradia, Nepeta and Feferi were burying Equius and Sollux under the sand with only their heads sticking out. Tavros and Gamzee were near the shore but just out of reach of the water when waves come in, building a sand castle together. Rose and Kanaya were taking a leisurely walk around, holding hands. Jade, John, Vriska, Terezi, Roxy, and Jane were playing tag with one another along the beach and splashing each other with water. It makes you smile. You make sure to take lots of pictures of them.

But Dave… Dave was sitting a little ways away from everyone else, on the sand and letting the waves pass through him. You peak into the hole of the camera and twist the lenses to zoom in on him.

You feel like a creep.

But this is also probably one of the only times you get to see him without a shirt on without obvious looking like you’re checking him out. Embarrassment rises from your neck but you continue watching the blond nonetheless.

Although he’s a little far away, the strength of the camera lets you see him in clear detail as if you were right beside him.

From here, you can see the smooth curve of his back, the tension in his arm muscles as he keeps himself up, the way the sun reflects off of his skin in an iridescent glow. He’s definitely tanned quite a bit, but that only makes the white, discoloured marks on his skin that much more visible. And he’s got a lot of them. All in varying sizes, most of it around his torso and upper arms and shoulders, but not around his lower arms. It makes it easier to hide with a simple shirt on.

But the one you’re more curious about is the long stripe of discoloured skin along his back, starting from his shoulder blades and curving downwards until you can’t see any more from the angle you’re in. Your heart skips a beat.

Somehow… Somehow, you don’t feel completely surprised by the discovery. You had already known he had scars, just not how much it littered his skin. But you don’t feel surprised by that fact, like somewhere in the back of your head, you already knew this. Like you’ve seen them before. Like this has happened before.

That’s really fucked up.

In the end, you come to a conclusion. Dave’s fucking hot. And you really really would like to get your hands all over him, but quickly expel those thoughts out of your brain when it starts to lead to dirtier things and you start to feel heat in other places than your neck and face.

Instead, you zoom out of him and aim the camera so that he’s near the corner of your view, with a nice shot of the ocean sprawling in front of him. You steady your hands before snapping a photo.

When you check out the results in the screen, you’re pleased with what you’ve managed to achieve.

You can’t wait to show it to Dave.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The sun is setting in the distance, painting the sky in rich shades of deep purples and pastel pinks before ending in a fiery orange glow nearest to the sun. The clouds make a nice effect around the sky, bathed with the same colours.

Your group is beginning to pack up and you’ve changed into your previous jeans and put on your socks and sneakers on.

You’re currently sitting at a picnic bench far from the shores, your feet crossed at the ankles as you scrolled through the photos you took. Some of them look blurry and you delete those ones. But most look good with lots of smiles and laughter and peace signs. Mostly coming from Aradia.

Strider approaches you and takes a seat beside you. “Sup.”

You make a quiet humming noise to acknowledge his presence but otherwise, don’t take your eyes off of the camera as you scroll through the day’s photos.

“How was being a photographer for a day like?” He inquires, leaning against the table behind him.

“It was good. I think I understand why you like photography so much.” You say with a tiny smile on your face as you stop at one particular photo. It’s of Aradia, Nepeta, Feferi posing happily around the two boys they buried. They both look pained and exasperated at the same time.

“Really? Did you learn some life lesson like they teach at the end of the episode of a kids tv show? Care to share your vast life experiences and knowledge with us young and dumb youth, Vantas?”

You scoff. “No, Dave. I just learned that taking photos is actually a really fun thing to do.” You reply sarcastically, rolling your eyes.

He nudges you with his elbow and you immediately shrink away from him, pinning him with a glare. “Seriously though, did you enjoy taking pictures?”

You bite your lip and nod. The way he grins at you makes your heart skip. “Really? Score. Did you take any good photos you’re proud of?”

At the mention of that, the picture you took of him from earlier pops up into your mind. You grin. “Yeah. Actually, I do.”

He scoots closer to you to look over your shoulder as you scroll through the photos to get to the one you want. You skip a few photos past it before stopping and going back at a much slower speed so you don’t pass it again.

You show him the one you took of him at the shore of the beach, leaning back with his arms supporting his body, waves crawling past his feet. The sea glitters under the sun.

Both of his eyebrows shoot up past his shades in surprise. He actually slips his shades up onto his head to get a better look at it without the tinted vision.

He whistles. “Damn, that is a pretty great photo for a noob like you, Kitkat.” He comments and you can’t help the swell of pride that bubbles up from your chest and all around your body.

He pulls away from leaning over your shoulder to look at you, still sitting close to you. Your breath gets caught in your throat as you stare back at him.

The setting is perfect. The mood is perfect. Everything about this situation is perfect.

You’re about to open your mouth to tell him when you’re suddenly incapable of speech. Mostly because he’s occupied your lips with his.

The move was so sudden and came completely out of nowhere without warning that your brain is having a hard time processing anything.

His lips were there and then they were gone. He stares at you for a few moments while you stare wide-eyed at him.

Your mind is still catching up with the fact that you suddenly had the courage to confess that processing the kiss was hard for you. Like a computer overloaded with too many tasks at once and your mouse has that constant loading symbol, preventing you from doing anything until the computer processes the other tasks enough to let continue.

 

 

But you took too long, you were silent for too long. You saw something deflate in his stance as he quickly flicks his shades back down his face. “It was just a prank.”

And just like that, your brain was snapped out of its frozen state. Your brows slowly knit together in confusion. “What?” You questioned, voice coming out breathless.

He’s quick to put distance between the two of you, shrugging as casually as he can. So much so that you know it was forced. “Y’know, it’s still prank week, right? Rules say it doesn’t end until twelve tonight. It was just a prank.”

Your mind is still reeling from how fast everything went. But your body is moving on autopilot.

“Right. A prank.” You hear yourself say out loud bitterly and laughing, not caring how forced it sounds.

“Anyway, I’ll see you back at the ship. The guys should be finishing up packing everything back into the car.” He says, tone cool and monotonous. Just like how he spoke to you when the two of you just met.

You bite down on your tongue hard before you say something you’ll regret.

Instead, you looked out to the setting sun on the horizon, hearing his soft footsteps on the sand get farther and farther away.

Once you’re sure he’s well out of earshot, you shout “FUCK!” at the top of your lungs, setting the camera down on your lap to use both hands to dig the heels of your palm into your eyes hard. You double over, practically curling in on yourself, pushing into your eyes until you see strange shapes and colours in the darkness behind your eyelids. You refuse to acknowledge the way your eyes sting.

You refuse to cry about this.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You don’t see him at all for dinner.

You fully expected it though.

In the end, when all of you had settled back into your own cabins for the day, John declares the prank wars to be a draw with the last scores being twenty points for each team.

 _It was just a prank_.

He never told anyone else what happened at the end of the day at the beach.

You don’t know how to feel about this. If he told everyone, you have every right to feel angry at him for fucking around with your feelings. If he told everyone, it would solidify the idea that it was all a prank in the end and that’s all it was.

But he didn’t. And you don’t know how to feel about that.

You certainly know one thing though; your self-esteem is currently in tatters. Like someone had just taken your paper heart, cut it into little pieces until you can’t cut it any smaller than it is, and thrown around like glitter all over the place, decorating the floor in sickening red.

It feels like you had gone from being close friends with him to being complete strangers again. Like three years of acquaintances and two weeks of an epic friendship had just suddenly disappeared.

You feel sick to your stomach and your whole body aches. As if your own emotional turmoil was finally bleeding into reality and taking physical form.

The camera on top of your bedside cabinet isn't helping either. It reminds you that you have no idea how to approach him from here on out, you have no idea how to even return the damn thing back to him. He hasn’t made the first move to retrieve it back either.

You grit your teeth and wipe furiously at your eyes when you feel it stinging again.

Before the flood of self deprecation drowns you, you decide to just finally get some sleep.

You shut off your lights and go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry.


	18. Looking At Things From A Different Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 26 - San Antonio, Chile  
> Day 27 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the person who wanted to beat up Dave,
> 
> I hope this is enough to satisfy your blood thirst.

**DS POV**

* * *

 

 

She packs one hell of a slap.

“You are so fucking stupid! Oh my god, I can’t believe how much of a mess you’ve made out of this! Goddammit, Dave!” She says followed by an explosive sigh as she paced back and forth in front of your bed. You stand awkwardly at the foot of your bed, cradling your cheek with one hand. It stings and burns and you hope it won’t leave a mark on your face. That’d just be very embarrassing.

“I didn’t mean to-" You start to say but she raises a finger and you shut your mouth with an almost audible click. She brings her other hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“I can’t believe you right now, Dave. I knew you were dumb, but not _this_ dumb.”

Okay, now she was kinda getting under your nerves. “I’m fucking sorry if I can’t make completely rational decisions when my emotions are all over the place. You’re a hypocrite, Rose. You lost your own shit just a few days ago, you don’t get to belittle me for fucking shit up when my emotions were running the circus show instead of my logic.”

She bites her lip guiltily at the mention of her own mistake not long ago. Your features soften a little. “I’m sorry. I was a little harsh on you. That was unfair of me.” She tells you, taking deep breaths and smoothing down her skirt.

She faces you, both hands on either hips. “Alright. What do you plan to do moving forward from this?”

It’s your turn to bite your lip. “I don’t know.” You murmur.

She huffs at you. “Alright. So, you kissed him, he didn’t have a reaction so you assumed the worst and jumped to the conclusion that he just didn’t know how to properly reject you when in reality, his answer is still left ambiguous because you didn’t wait long enough for a proper reaction. What’s worse is to get yourself out of a very embarrassing and awkward situation or complete rejection, you said that it was a _prank_. And he was bitter about it. Of course, he’d be bitter about it, you’re toying with his emotions, Dave! So, how do you plan on fixing this?”

You cringe the whole way through that recounting of your gigantic fuck up. You are a massive tool.

“Look, I know it looks bad-"

“Oh trust me, it is more than bad.”

“But he’s still got my camera, okay? Maybe I can… Use that as an excuse to talk to him again…?” You suggest, completely unsure about this whole thing.

Rose raises an eyebrow at you. “And what do you plan on saying to him?”

You sigh explosively. “I don’t fucking know, Rose. What am I supposed to do, just straight up confess? No, never mind. Don’t even open your mouth to answer, I already know what you’re going to say.”

She smirks at you, crossing her arms over her chest. “Look, at this point, it’s best if you just have a proper talk with him about your feelings and straighten things out. You might even salvage your friendship afterwards even if he does reject your romantic advances.”

You bite the inside of your cheek. You’re notoriously bad at being open and vulnerable with practically anyone. Especially when it’s dealing with _feelings_ of any kind. It’s like the kryptonite to your cool as hell superman. Because you weren’t raised normally, emotional regulation is not something in your repertoire of life skills. Actually, you were raised in a very emotionally oppressive environment and you’ve been told for the first crucial developmental years of your life that being vulnerable with anyone will just get you hurt in more ways than one. Even years later, you’re still struggling with getting rid of remnants of him he’s left in your personality. Doesn’t help that some of those remnants have physical, permanent evidence on your skin.

You know what Rose is saying is right, but you really don’t want to do that under any circumstance. If possible, you’d like to make that a last resort if all else fails.

“Can I just try it my way first, and if I fuck it up again, I’ll do what you’re asking me to do?”

Rose looks at you with a genuinely worried expression. “I’m just concerned you might completely destroy your bridges in an attempt to fix them. I want what’s best for you, you’re my brother, after all.”

Although Rose is all poise and complete elegance on the outside, almost appearing untouchable in terms of emotions, she can really be very affectionate in her own ways in private. She’s not one for flaunting her love for her friends or even her girlfriend like… Let's say Jade is.

You sigh, running your hand through your hair. She lifts a hand and tentatively pulls your shades off of your face and places it down on the bed.

“I don’t know what to do, Rose.” You murmur.

She moves closer to you and puts a comforting hand on your shoulder, soothingly running it in a back and forth motion. “Just talk to him. The more you avoid it, the more things will just keep on getting worse. I know Karkat. If you let him think too much about things, let him assume and jump to conclusions without offering an explanation, he ends up destroying himself. You both have very vulnerable sides you compensate for with a lot of bravado. I don’t want either of you to end up hurt by all of this.”

You sigh and move to fall back on your bed, covering your face with your hands. “What if I just act like nothing happened? Like… Ask him to forget about it? A restart. I still want to be friends with him after all. And I… I still need time. I’m not ready yet. I’m not ready to jump into being in a relationship with someone. I still want to get to know him more before… Before going the next level, y’know?”

She raises an eyebrow at you. “You’re not ready to confess, but you’re apparently ready to kiss him?”

You groan. “This shit is hard okay? I was kind of hoping on never having to talk about feelings with him and just do it and have it all work out.”

She laughs lightly at you. “You know that’s not how relationships start or work, Dave. You’ll have to talk to him about feelings sooner or later.”

“Yeah, I know. But now isn’t the time, y’know? I’m not ready. So I’m asking you, do you think what I just said would work?”

Rose purses her lips, clearly disapproving of this suggestion without opening her mouth. “... I suppose. I’m sure he still wants to be friends with you too. But be prepared, he’ll definitely ask you if you’re fucking around with his feelings and you need to have a proper answer for him that isn’t some half-assed excuse.”

You bite your lip, staring down at your carpeted floor. “Alright. I’ll try and approach him tomorrow.”

Rose smiles at you, patting you on the back. “Good luck then, David.” She kisses your forehead before heading out the door, closing it softly behind her.

You stare at the wall opposite to you, the wall that’s separating your room from Karkat’s. A quick check on your phone tells you that it’s already twelve midnight. You really need to get some sleep, Roxy is sure to be banging at your door no later than seven in the morning.

With what must be your millionth sigh that day, you prepare yourself for bed and go to sleep.

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

Well, your plan for the day is completely ruined.

At the breakfast table, when you asked about Karkat, Roxy tells you that he said he was feeling kinda sick and that he doesn’t really feel like going out for the day. Guilt settles in your stomach because you’re most definitely the reason he’s skipping out on the whole day. He’s trying to avoid you.

But at the same time, this gives you time to think about what you’re going to say to him. Tomorrow, you’ll be at sea for most of the day again and you can approach him then.

You tour around the place in San Antonio, looking at the available tourist attractions. Your group checks out various museums before ending it on a beach at Playa Chica. You couldn’t exactly enjoy the trip, your mind floating around.

There was a shop you went to during the trip, a shopping mall where you got to grab some cool souvenirs. You saw a section of the usual fridge magnet souvenirs and your mind immediately jumps to him. You’ve seen him collecting one at every place you’ve been to so far and…

And you couldn’t help but pick one up and buy it. You hope he’ll appreciate it even if it is coming from a douchebag like you (you know you’d definitely be pretty cold and refuse anything given to you by the guy who kissed you and told you it was only a prank). Your group continues on with your travels.

Without your camera with you, you had to settle with the shitty camera on your phone to take pictures. You really miss your camera even though you’ve only gone a day without it. It’s one of your prized possessions, a gift from Dirk on your birthday that also doubled as a Christmas present.

Eventually, the day comes to an end and you have dinner. Kanaya takes a meal with her and when you asked her about it, she said that Karkat had requested her to bring him food. She complied, having a feeling that something is wrong and that he’s not being completely honest with her about his reasoning for feeling ‘sick’.

That’s another gut punch to you. You debate with yourself for a bit whether to tell Kanaya or not but she simply pats your shoulder and tells you that Karkat will come out eventually when he’s done moping about whatever his issue is. She tells you not to worry.

You worry anyway.

You stared at his cabin door wistfully for a bit before entering your own and going to sleep.

You don’t exactly look forward to tomorrow but it comes sooner than you’d like.

You spend the day on the ship hanging out with your friends, shooting the shit at the arcade and doing generally dumb things aboard the ship. You haven’t hung out with John in a while but he says he understands and that you’ve practically spent half your life with him, he doesn’t mind you hanging around other people for a couple of weeks or even months. The two of you are still best bros.

The morning comes and goes and so does the afternoon and the rest of your day with it. You haven’t seen Karkat or heard from him on any of your social media. He’s not active in the group chat (the one for prank wars in snapchat. John decided to keep it around for group chatting purposes now), nor has he posted or updated anything in on snapchat (then again, what would he update you on? He didn’t go on the trip yesterday).

When dinner rolls around at six in the evening, Rose approaches you after it. She takes you inside your cabin and you grimace, already knowing what she’s going to say.

“Time is running out, Dave. You haven’t had the talk with him have you?”

Your silence is answer enough for her. She sighs and uncrosses her arms, letting it hang at her sides. “You don’t have the time to procrastinate on this, Dave. You said you would-”

You pinch the bridge of your nose. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I know, alright, Rose? Look, I’ll do it right now if it makes you happy.”

She still looks dissatisfied with you but nods nonetheless. “Fine. I’ll be here waiting for you to come back and give me a full report on what’s happened.”

You sighed and plucked the shopping bag you have that contained items you bought yesterday. Rose raises a brow at you when you picked something up and put it into your jean pocket. Your roll your eyes and since she doesn’t ask, you don’t tell her.

She takes a seat on your couch and makes herself comfortable, turning on your tv. You make your way out of your room, closing the door behind you.

You stand outside his door for longer than that’s probably appropriate. You breathe in a deep breath, close your eyes, and just knocked.

A beat of silence. “... Kanaya?”

You bite the inside of your cheek. “It’s me.” You manage to croak out. Great to know your vocal cords still work.

Another beat of silence. You hear some shuffling from inside and before long, he’s got the door opened.

He’s got your camera in hand, a grumpy expression on his face as usual. “You want your camera back, right? Here.” He shoves it your way and you take it. He’s quick to try and close the door on you but you manage to stick your foot out and stop him from completely closing it.

He eyes your foot in his door, before flicking up to meet your shades with an unamused expression. “Can we talk?” You spit out and he raises an eyebrow at you.

“About what? What is there to talk about?” You cringe at his words and you’re once again eternally glad that your shades cover your eyes.

“Look, can you just let me in and explain? I- I’m sorry.” You mutter the last words quietly. You were never good at apologizing for things you did. You don’t exactly know what to do after it.

His expression looks surprised for a moment ay your sudden apology before it passes. “You’re pathetic.” He sighs but opens the door for you anyway. You can tell that there’s no bite or malice meant to hurt you in his words.

You shuffle inside his room quietly, setting your camera down on the cabinet beside his bed. He closes the door behind him before taking a seat on the couch and you follow after him. He turns to face you and you do the same. “Alright, fucker. Talk.”

You bite your lip nervously, averting your eyes. You can’t handle the intensity of his steel coloured eyes. “I- okay. What I did two days ago was, um… Wrong. I shouldn’t have done that and I’m sorry.”

“Tell me, Strider, what part exactly did you do that was wrong?” He crosses his arms, staring at you intently.

Okay, wow. He’s really gonna make you lay it all out, isn’t he? No beating around the bush this time.

You bite the inside of your cheek nervously. “Um… The part about the prank…?”

He still does not seem amused by you.

You sigh explosively, running your hand through your hair roughly. “Look, I just. I came here because I didn’t want things to be awkward between us, I still want to be friends. You’re a pretty chill guy to hang out with, Vantas. I was hoping I haven’t completely fucked everything up and that I can still fix this if you’d let me. So can we just like… Forget that thing that I did never happened?”

He’s staring at you as if searching your face for any insincerity. You don’t blame him, after the stunt you pulled, you would have a hard time believing your own words right now. “Can you be more specific on what ‘thing’ we’re talking about, Strider?”

Christ. He wants you to actually say it out loud. You hate your pale ass skin for betraying you and obviously showing the heat you feel on your face. “Y’know… The, um… The-uh, the _thing_. That happened like. Two days ago… You know what I’m talking about, don’t lie.”

You briefly see his lip twitch. The fucker. “No, I actually have no idea what you’re talking about, Strider. You’re gonna need to be clear with me here.”

You knit your brows together behind your shades. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

Again, that lip twitch. He’s terrible at trying to conceal his smirk though. He’s clearly seeing your reactions to this whole thing as something entertaining now. Fuck, this was supposed to be all serious and shit and you prepared yourself for that. You prepared yourself to be verbally eviscerated, you expected him to cuss you out for what you did, but you certainly didn’t prepare your heart for _this_.

He rolls his eyes. “Gee, I wonder what brought you to that conclusion?” He drawls, tone clearly sarcastic.

“Man, I’m trying to be serious here and fix my utter fuck up and you’re just making fun of me. What the fuck, man?”

He bite his lip, actually looking pretty guilty now. He plays with the hem of his shirt. “Fine. But you’re gonna have to work for it to earn my forgiveness. What you did was a really dickish move and I honestly shouldn’t even be forgiving you right now. But… I do want to keep being friends with you too. Fuck, we just got started on this shit not long ago after three years of basically avoiding each other in the same friend group. I’m willing to give you another chance just because of that three years. And I do genuinely kinda want to know more about you. You’re… pretty interesting I guess.” You can tell he’s trying his hardest to make all of this seem like it doesn’t matter much to him.

You perk up, not expecting him to accept it that easily. Well, he did say he still hasn’t forgiven you, but he’s giving you the chance to fix things up with him. Giving you a chance to hang out with him again. That’s more than enough to you.

“I just have one question, and you have to answer me truthfully. No bullshitting or I’m taking everything I just said back.”

Okay, that kinda dampens your celebratory mood.

“Shoot.”

He makes a show of taking a deep breath and sitting up straighter. He averts his eyes from you, silence continuing to stretch on between you. You raise an eyebrow.

“Why… Why did you do it…?” Ah. There it is, Rose warned you about this. You look away, staring at the coffee table in front of you.

“I…” You grit your teeth, trying to force the words out. “I don’t know.”

Fuck.

“I-" You try again.

_I like you._

It’s easy. You just have to tell him. You know you’re not ready to jump back into a relationship yet (you suck at them and this is one you want to actually want to last so you’re putting more effort into it. You don’t want a repeat of Terezi and Jade where you went into things too quickly), but telling him that you like him doesn’t necessarily equate to you asking him out. But then again, that’s the natural next step after a confession so maybe this is more of a reason _not_ to tell him considering the context… You can’t mistake the reason for kissing someone is because you like them as something that’s completely platonic. That’s something that’s inherently romantic.

How do you subtly tell someone you’re into them without making it blatantly obvious or seem like you’re rejecting the idea completely?

 _I like you_.

 _As a person_.

The word friend would definitely put him in the friend zone and that’s not exactly what you want. You liked how you were before. Platonic but just edging into something romantic. You have no idea how you can regain that.

 _I like you_.

“I really don’t know."

_Fuck._

There’s a long tense silence and you can’t help but hold your breath. You refuse to look at him.

“Alright.”

Your eyes flit back to him without your permission and you see him running his hand through his hair. Shit, he looks really good like that. “Alright.” He repeats. “I mean, we all make stupid mistakes all the time, I get it. I guess I’m glad you actually took the effort to try and correct things so we can still continue being friends and shit.”

Oh. _Oh shit._ Now he thinks you kissing him was a mistake on your part and that is so completely not what you want him to think. You mean, it was a mistake, in timing, but the idea of kissing him is definitely not a mistake, the timing was just wrong and-

_Fuck why does this have to be so damn hard?_

“Alright.” You hear yourself say in the midst of your mental breakdown. You see him smile faintly and somehow, it just makes you feel sad about the whole situation.

God, you are so socially inept it’s embarrassingly hilarious.

Before you make things awkward with the silence, you pull out the little magnet you got and hand it over to him. He takes it, eyebrows knitting together as he turns it around in his hand.

“What is it?”

“Dude. It’s a magnet. You’re collecting one from every place we go to, right?”

He eyes you suspiciously and you feel nervous being under his gaze like that. “You noticed that?”

You swallow thickly and attempt to shrug your shoulders as casually as you can without seeming tense. It kind of works. “I guess? I just notice a lot of things.” _A lot of things involving you_. “This might be hard to believe but I’m actually a pretty observant person. I’m not an oblivious nut head like John can be sometimes.”

He worries his lower lip and you can’t help but stare. Thank god for your shades. It really has so many perks. Shades are an underappreciated accessory.

“Thanks.” He mutters quietly, shoving it into his pyjama pocket.

You stand up and stretch. “Well, alright. Now that we’ve got that shit figured out, I’m gonna go get some sleep. We’re leaving again tomorrow.”

“G’night.” You hear him say faintly behind you. You pick up your camera and leave the room, successfully resisting the urge to look back at him.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

**KV POV**

* * *

 

 

You hate him because he makes things so hard for you.

You stare at your phone as you’re attacked with dozens of notifications every second that passes.

You hate him because one moment, you know where you finally stand with him and then he goes and does something like this.

Your instagram is blowing up with new followers and you’ve long turned the notification sounds off. You’re just staring at the flood of new accounts following your empty instagram account (you literally post nothing on there and you only follow very few people including your friends).

It’s only been an hour since he left your cabin after that horrifyingly awkward talk. You thought you could finally rest tonight knowing just how hopeless you are. You could deal with being shut down completely, but it’s so hard for you when you’re given even a smidgen of hope. Hope that you might be interpreting completely wrong in the first place. But it’s hope nonetheless.

Hope is a piece of shit.

_ I let him have my camera for the day. I think he did a pretty good job. @krkt.vantas _

He fucking tags you on the photo you took of him. And now, a bunch of his followers that’s been eager to find out who this ‘mystery guy in Dave Strider’s photos’ are following your account even if it’s completely devoid of any photos at all.

At this point, you’ve gained one thousand new followers. And it’s still counting up.

You… You have no idea why he’d do this. It could be just him crediting you for taking the photo of him at the beach, but it’s also confusing when you add in the fact that his followers have been asking him if the ‘guy’ in his photos is his  _ boyfriend _ and has been asking him to tag said person so they can stalk the ‘guy’. The guy being you.

And it’s not like he was being vague about it either. ‘I let him have my camera for the day’ is clearly referring to how he let the person he usually takes photos of have his camera since like his followers pointed out, you’re literally the only person that’s featured in his scenery photos. Sure, he’s got a couple of your different friends, but they’re usually just one-offs. He’s posted five photos of you as the main subject.

So it’s twelve midnight and you’re here wondering why the fuck hasn’t he corrected the claims and said that you two were just friends?

Okay, fuck, you’re over analyzing things. Maybe he just doesn’t see it as a big deal?? He’s getting likes either way so. But at the same time, it doesn’t make sense- to you anyway. Or could he be using it as a ploy to get even more likes…? Your photos have been pretty popular. The first one has over thirteen k likes at this point.

Shit, you have no idea how to take off your romance tinted glasses. You just can’t help but overanalyze everything, searching for meaning that might not even be there.

You can’t help yourself. You click on the comment button and begin typing.

_ We’re not together, we’re just friends. _

Annnnnd… Comment sent.

With that, you shut your phone off and try to get some sleep.


	19. Candid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 28 - Puerto Montt, Chile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short and mostly filler I'm sorry :')

Your phone is blasted up with new notifications when you get up in the morning.

They’re mostly tags and mentions to you with people’s comments.

_Omg you guys aren't dating?? @krkt.vantas_

_So does that mean that Strider is still single? @krkt.vantas_

_But you guys would look so cute together!! @krkt.vantas_

_No way you guys aren’t dating. I don’t believe it. @krkt.vantas_

_You guys aren’t dating?!?! You guys totally should you look good together!!! @krkt.vantas_

_@krkt.vantas you should totally tap dat ass while it’s still available._

_Oml I totally know what’s happening here. It’s totally a will-they-wont-they situation. @krkt.vantas, @ds_strider is totally flirting with you!!_

_You guys aren’t dating??? You guys totally should. @krkt.vantas @ds_strider_

_I fucking ship you guys now. @krkt.vantas_

_Me too!!! I ship them together now! @krkt.vantas_

_#striderxvantas @krkt.vantas @ds_strider_

It’s fucking ridiculous.

You turn off your notifications for instagram.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Roxy has once again gathered you all up for breakfast before heading out. The ship docked at Puerto Montt around seven and you’re only going to be there until five. Still, plenty of time to do some touristy things though.

The first stop was at Lahuen Ñadi National Park. It was a narrow wooden walkway through some very old and very tall trees with beautiful natural sights to behold. Your group walked around and followed the short trail taking pictures of the lush greenery around you.

Like he usually would, Dave stuck around by your side and took photos. A few times he would call your name to get you to look at him so he can snap a photo of you, but you’d just naturally cover up the lenses and or your face. You’re still kind of adverse to the idea of actually showing your face to the camera no matter how pretty Strider can make it look. Especially now that you know there’s a chance of one of those photos ending up on his instagram account. You’re not exactly confident in your own looks. You’re short, you’re always scowling, and there’s nothing even remotely noteworthy about you. You’re just kinda… Average.

You’d never admit it but you don’t want to show your face because you’re scared you won’t meet people’s expectations of you. Even the photo where you actually did face him in Easter Island mostly obscured your face and only really revealed part of, even though it’s hard to see with the lighting.

He doesn’t push you though, although he is cocky about his ability to take a picture of you with you facing him without having to call out your name and simply catch you off guard _while_ he makes it look good and intentional at the same time.

At some point during the walk, he brings up the thing about instagram.

“Dude, why did you debunk my followers’ claims of us dating. It was so useful, man. I haven’t been pestered by random girls I don’t know in my dms trying to flirt and get to know me for days. Now they’re blowing up my notifications again because you basically told them I’m still single.”

So. That was his reasoning for letting his followers think the two of you were dating. You can’t help feeling disappointed even if you kept your expectations low in the first place.

“Why don’t you just say in your instagram bio that you’re taken? Sounds like an easy as fuck solution to me.”

He snorts. “Tried that before. It wasn’t as effective as when I posted photos of you.”

You roll your eyes exaggeratedly. “So, what? Are you asking me to be your boyfriend to protect you from girls hitting on you in your dms?”

He lifts his camera and snaps a photo of you, the flash going off and blinding you for a moment. “Fuck you, I told you I don’t like getting my pictures taken!”

He smirks. “All the more reason to take them in the first place, dude.”

He doesn’t answer your question.

After having that nice nature walk early in the morning, you move on after an hour at Lahuen Ñadi National Park.

Your chaperones take your group to a museum next. In Puerto Montt Historical Museum Juan Pablo ll.

The exhibits there were interesting enough but not really all that much to see. But some of the things featured there were interesting and helped with educating your group more about the history of the place you’re visiting.

It really only takes about an hour to tour the whole place and then your group is off again to the next site.

Your group visits Lake Llanquihue next and thanks for the clear skies, your group is able to see the view of Osorno Volcano. You spend a while chilling and taking pictures around the place for about an hour or so before moving on again.

It’s eleven by this time and your group makes its way to Frutillar to have lunch there.

Your group eats at Se Cocina Frutillar. You had been eating and talking with Terezi who has decided to spend some time and sit beside you.

You remember laughing at something she said when you heard the familiar sound of a camera snapping a photo. Your attention immediately turns to Dave, who’s sitting across from you with his camera, smirking at you. Does he ever let go of that camera when you guys are on a trip?

You shoot him a deadpan look while he simply waves his camera around with one hand teasingly. You roll your eyes and continue eating, talking to Terezi in the meanwhile.

After lunch, you head back to Puerto Montt and continue your travels around the place.

The next stop was at Angelmó, a bustling marketplace. All around were stores and vendors, some selling fresh fish and other seafood and some selling souvenirs like pretty shawls and other trinkets. The place mostly smelled like fish (obviously, they were laid you right there in the vendor stalls) and spices.

Per usual, you buy a fridge magnet to take home to your father.

Jade gets herself a couple of colourful dolls as a remembrance of the place.

And while your group was there, you take a boat to visit Tenglo Island, just a little off the coast of Puerto Montt. On the boat on the way there, your group got a pretty panoramic shot of the port and its classic palafitos (construction built on stilts).

Your group visited the beach made out of volcanic sand in La Puntilla where some people were enjoying the sun and sunbathing. A lifeguard is on the site to ensure people’s safety.

Some of your friends decided they wanted to stay for a while and enjoy the sun as well, soaking in the heat. But you didn’t really get to spend much time there because it’s not long before it becomes four in the afternoon and you have to go back to catch the ship before it’s departure.

Your boat sails across the sea back to port just as the sun was beginning to set. You make it back to the ship, cutting it close at four forty-five in the afternoon.

You spent some time cleaning up and showering as soon as you got back before heading to go eat dinner with the others.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Nightly routines done, you make a call to your father. So far, you’ve only ever texted him and you’re feeling particularly homesick at the moment. You wanted to hear your father’s voice.

“Karkat? What’s with the phone call? Did something happen?” His voice in the other line fills your ears and relief spreads in your chest. You smile.

“Nothing bad or serious happened, don’t worry. I was just calling because I was feeling kinda homesick.” You tell him honestly, lying back on your bed and looking at the dim ceiling bathed in amber light. Your only light source right now is your bedside lamp.

He chuckles at your answer, clearly amused. “Alright. So, how’s the trip going so far?”

You grin and tell him about everything so far. You’ve got a good relationship with your adoptive father, only strengthened when it was just the two of you left after your mother died. You tell him everything that’s ever bothered you and he helps you to the best of his abilities. Your father is a kind man.

So although you’re a little embarrassed to be talking about your romantic woes with your dad of all things, you know just talking to someone about it will help ease your mind.

When you first told your father that you were attracted to both genders, you were in eighth grade. You had come home to him defeated after getting rejected by Egbert, and you hated to admit it, but he accidentally found you crying in your room when he came to tell you dinner was ready.

Of course, he was quick to be concerned. Rarely anything really got you to cry (aside from specific romantic plots, shut up) so he was worried about what happened at school. You tried to tell him it was nothing but he was clearly not buying it. So, you told him. As bluntly as you could. You straight up told him you kissed a boy and got rejected immediately afterwards.

He was a little surprised at the sudden revelation, but he didn’t freak out. You never really thought he would, but you didn’t want to tell him unless you had to. Unless you brought home a guy instead of a girl.

He smiled and simply told you of his own disaster with his first kiss. Long story short, it ended with a milkshake thrown at his face (let your imagination run wild at how _that_ happened). It was a relief that he acted like what you told him was completely normal and the fact that he shared with you his own struggles when he was your age really comforted you. He made you stop crying and laugh at all his dadly jokes.

Afterwards, he tells you that it didn’t matter who you liked, as long as they made you happy. He’s been very supportive of you and he still pokes fun at you for crying over your terrible first kiss. From then on, you really kept an honest relationship with him and you’re very happy to call him your dad.

And just like you predicted, telling him made you feel lighter. He tells you whatever decision you land on and whatever happens afterwards, he’s there for you. He also takes the opportunity to tease you about having him as a shoulder to cry on because that is quite literally what you did in eighth grade.

You tell him good night and you drop the call.

Before you go to sleep, there’s one more thing you have to do.

You open instagram. Damn, you have about four thousand new followers and thankfully, notifications about them have finally stopped coming in. But that’s not what you’re there for.

As suspected. A new picture of you is up on his page and it’s the one he took of you at the restaurant.

In it, light from behind the window creates a great contrast around your form. You’re turned slightly towards the left where Terezi sat beside you but isn’t in this shot. You’re laughing in the photo and it’s a very candid shot with your whole face visible on the screen. He did what he told you he would do. He caught you doing something you normally wouldn't do in photos; smile.

And… And you’re honestly not mad about it? The way he takes pictures of you is different from how others would. Then again, it could be just because Strider is a photographer and knows how camera shit works to get the best results, but… It makes you happy. It makes you feel special, somehow. And it doesn’t make you hate yourself and hate how you look.

It makes you want to smile more in photos.


	20. Something's Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 29 - At Sea  
> Day 30 - Amalia Glacier, Chile

“We’re having a movie night!” Roxy exclaims happily as she drags each and every one of you from your rooms that night. It’s eight in the evening and you’ve just eaten dinner and gotten ready for bed.

You had gone on a trip to Puerto Montt yesterday and you’ve done nothing but relax the whole day earlier. But now you’re all being dragged down the hallway with pillows and comfortable pyjamas on. You have no idea how Roxy can stay so energized. Actually, the same question can be applied to Jade, Aradia, and Feferi. It’s ridiculous.

But what’s even more ridiculous is renting out the whole fucking cruise theater for a movie night just because none of your cabins would be big enough for a sleepover. Rich people are fucking ridiculous.

The theater wasn’t as big a theater you’d normally see in a mall, quite a bit smaller actually. But there’s still plenty of seats for passengers who want to watch a flick on the big screen.

The whole room and the chairs were in a circular shape, all pointed towards the huge screen up front. The floor was carpeted red and the seats were leather and black. They also recline so your seat can literally shift into a bed with your feet up. _Fucking rich people_.

Roxy happily claims that she and the chaperones picked a series of films that will continuously play throughout the night that everyone should enjoy regardless of personal preference. And by that, she means Disney movies. She did say that whoever is able to stay up long enough might catch the horror films they threw in for fun. But otherwise, it’s mostly Disney films.

All of you got situated in your seats as the first movie starts to play. It’s the original Lion King.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad actually.

But that thought instantly changes as the film progresses. Your group keeps fussing and whisper-shouting at each other or simply making constant comments on the movie. There was also the crackle of chips and other snacks you all brought in to eat while the movie plays or the constant shushing of each other that only serves as even more of a distraction from what you’re watching. It’s not very effective either, the person being shushed will often just shush the other louder.

Eventually, it starts to really grate your nerves. When you get a light tap on your shoulder.

You glance over to your right where Dave is offering you an earbud. You raise an eyebrow. “You wanna just listen to some tunes for now? I know they’re all being loud but once the main offenders fall asleep, which is hopefully very fucking soon, we should be able to enjoy the films.”

You eye the earbud in his hand for a moment before picking it up and putting it on.

Dave fiddles with his phone for a while before music fills your ears. It’s some beat remixes and song mashups.

“Are you playing your own music?” You questioned.

“Oh shit, I probably should’ve asked you what you wanted to listen to before putting on a playlist. But yeah, it is. They’re nothing to be really proud of though, they’re the typical shit I make when I have free time. Anyway, what do you want to listen to?”

You wave a dismissive hand at him. “It’s fine. This is fine, I was just wondering.”

He gives you that half side smile of his that always manages to make your chest clench tightly. “Alright.” He nods, turning his attention back to the screen and watching the film but not listening to the audio. You do the same.

Around twelve midnight, some of your friends are already out while Mulan plays on the screen. Gamzee and Tavros are slumped against each other in the seats they have beside one another. Kanaya had pulled back the armrests so she can rest her head on Rose’s lap while she slept. Rose simply ran her hand through her girlfriend’s hair, a small smile displayed on her lips as she continued to watch. Nepeta was in a similar situation, but it’s Equius who’s asleep on her lap. Roxy seems to have also kicked in the bucket early.

At one, Mulan finishes up and Inside Out starts playing. Jade is fast asleep as well and so is Feferi beside her.

At two, the first Toy Story plays after Inside Out. Terezi and John are asleep on either of Vriska’s shoulders, and spiderbitch has now gone quiet at the lack of conversational partners around her. Nepeta has also gone to sleep at this point.

At three, Finding Nemo is on. Rose has fallen asleep as well, and so has Jake and Jane. You, Dave, Aradia, Sollux, Dirk, Vriska and Eridan are still wide awake though. Dave has retrieved his headset back now that the theater was mostly quiet with most of your friends having fallen asleep.

At four, The Conjuring starts playing. Aradia has finally fallen asleep and so has Eridan, both slumped against Sollux who actually looks pretty peaceful at the moment.

At some point during the movie, you’re not exactly sure when, but Dave had taken off his shades and lightly rested his head on your shoulder. He looks pretty tired and to be perfectly honest, you feel quite tired as well.

By five, you’re asleep, barely finishing the horror movie. But you certainly did stay up a bit longer than Dave, who has peacefully used you as a pillow.

It’s had been your first time seeing the blond asleep. You only notice now, with how close he is to you, how long his lashes are. His face wears an expression of tranquility, unguarded unlike it usually is. His chest flutters up and down as he breathes and he’s quiet and deathly still when he sleeps. You try your best not to shift or move too much since Dave seems to be a light sleeper, eyelids fluttering open briefly if you make too much movement. You quietly tell him to go the fuck back to sleep every time he almost wakes up.

Honestly, you’re surprised with the physical closeness. You were expecting Dave to be much more cautious with being too near you. You were expecting him to lean against Jade instead of you to avoid the awkwardness. But it wasn’t awkward at all. In fact, it felt very natural for him to slump against you.

That thought rattles your heart in ways you do not appreciate.

Eventually, the comfortable heat that the fair haired male next to you radiates slowly lulls you to sleep, the noises of the movie dulling until you’re completely out.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You get a full seven hours of sleep before you wake up. Films were still playing on the screen and your friends were all mostly awake, chatting and generally not paying any attention as a live adaptation of Beauty And The Beast plays.

Sollux was still wide awake on his computer, with Aradia leaning on his shoulder as she watched whatever was happening on the screen. Gamzee and Tavros were actually watching the film while Rose and Kanaya canoodled. Jade, John, Jake, Roxy, Terezi and Vriska were running around the entire theater, playing tag like little kids. Eridan was on his phone and so was Feferi, with her leaning against him comfortably. Nepeta and Equius were having a lively chat and so was Dirk, with Jane. You on the other hand…

Well, you just woke up. And it seems Dave has been awake for quite some time too but chose to continue leaning against you while he watches random youtube videos with his headset on.

When you shift in your seat, he glances up at you from the corner of his eyes but otherwise made no move of leaving your actually pretty sore shoulder. His skin is cool against yours.

“‘Sup.” He greets you casually and you bristle.

“Can you get the fuck off of me, my whole arm has gone fucking numb from you using it as a pillow. I don’t even understand how you can fall asleep on it, I doubt it’s that comfortable.”

In response, he nuzzles into you and you find yourself tensing, already feeling the faint heat around your neck. “You’re plenty comfortable, Kitkat. I’ll leave you a ten out of ten yelp review.”

You try shrugging him off and he simply whines at that. But it does successfully get him off of you when you do it enough times.

“What time is it even? How are we not getting kicked out of here yet?” You questioned, rolling your shoulders and trying to get some feeling back into it.

“It’s eleven in the morning. Roxy said she had the place rented out until twelve in case we woke up late after that movie marathon.”

You nod, looking around. It was loud in the theater, empty threats and loud elated laughter echoing off of the walls. “What’s up with these idiots running around the place?” You ask and he shrugs.

“I think Vriska stole John’s glasses at one point and ran with it? Terezi ran after them and a bunch of other people joined thinking they were playing and so they did end up playing tag.” He supplies for you.

You nod and watch the place in silence for a little bit. Then you sigh and started shifting off of your place on the movie seat, gathering your stuff. Dave pulls his earbuds off. “Where you goin?”

You shrug. “We’re at the Amalia Glaciers right now, right? I’m gonna go up and do a little sightseeing. After that though, I have no idea.”

You think you hear him hum in acknowledgement and then shuffle to gather all of his shit too. You raise an eyebrow at him but he doesn’t seem to notice so you just grab your pillows and exit the seating row. A glance behind you tells you that Strider is following close after you.

After that… Something seemingly changed between the two of you.

Once you made it back to your cabins to deposit your pillows and change out of your pyjamas, all you had to do was step out and look out to the sea. The ship was idling in place to let the passengers see the sights.

It was colder than usual so you had actually pulled out a shawl you bought way back in Angelmó. It’s mostly grey, the edges lined with color like red and blue and white. You had shrugged it on and pulled it around yourself as you stood near the railing. Dave stepped out a few moments later, a thick beige wool sweater on, one he got from Angelmó as well.

And this is where you notice the subtle change.

He stands a bit closer to you than he normally would as he leaned his arms on the railing and rested his head down on it, your arms just barely grazing each other.

You eyed him suspiciously, but he doesn’t do anything else out of the ordinary than that. So you let it go and continued to watch the sights.

“What was it like, having two parents?” He asks you quietly after some time had passed of the both of you just staring at the mountains with blue-white glaciers spilling from between them. The sky was cloudy and rumbled every now and again but nothing happened aside from that. The sea was littered with tiny harmless ice pieces floating freely around the place. You're pretty sure your cruise won't be a repeat of the Titanic.

You glance over at him, brows furrowed a little in confusion. “Why’re you asking?”

He doesn’t immediately answer and you wait patiently for him to. It seems like this isn’t your usual banter so you don’t feel the need to fill the empty space. “I guess I’m just curious? John never met his mom, who apparently hightailed it out and left him with his dad to deal with him. Teenage pregnancy and shit. He turned out fine though and Mr. Egbert has done a fine job raising him.”

He goes quiet again, but only for a few beats. “And then there’s Rose… Well, her father left her because of her mother’s alcoholism at the time when Rose was just a baby. But she managed to get her act together and now she’s like a multi-million wine connoisseur, a title she inherited from Rose’s grandmother or something. At some point before Rose was an official teenager, her mother slipped back into alcoholism and suffered from depression. Little Rosie was her saviour at the age ten. Roxy had been sent away by Ms. Lalonde to a boarding school abroad with Jane when she had asked if she could follow her current girlfriend at the time there. Rose was mature enough to pinpoint her mother’s issues, having already taken an interest in psychology. So she called a helpline and handed her mom the phone. And things continued on from there.”

You nod slowly. You’ve heard of some of your friends’ pasts and Rose’s story about her mom is one you all know well. Her mother still slipped in and out of alcoholism when you had all met her during high school but after her mother got hospitalized and realized that you all came to visit her, she cried. She actually fully stopped after that. Ms. Lalonde has been so very kind and generous to all of you when you visited Rose at her home and you all managed to show her that you care during that time. She jokingly says that she’s ended up semi-adopting you sixteen teens and that she’s never been more happy with her life.

“And Jade… You know that she practically had to raise herself while her grandfather was galavanting around the globe as a world-renowned explorer. His company offering all sorts of adventure excursions is the biggest one in the industry but even though Jade was left with a lot of riches, she didn’t have much of anyone to rely on as she grew up. At some point, Jake took up the mantle of caring for her in her late elementary years instead of a bunch of alternating babysitters.”

The point he’s trying to make is the fact that most of your friends don’t exactly have a happy family life. Eridan’s parents constantly fought a lot but are still together only in paper because they both owned the company they ran and it’d be too much paperwork to deal a divorce. Feferi’s mom was a cold and independent entrepreneur and married based on convenience. Gamzee’s father was rarely there either and got babysitters to raise him throughout his life. Nepeta’s parents both died her mother to cancer and shortly after, her father to suicide. Equius’ family took her in when she was only in grade five. Many of you didn’t exactly live the typical childhood one normally would. Aradia’s parents died before she could even know them so she was left with her grandmother. Vriska was neglected as a child and continues to pick fights with her mom who won’t take responsibility for who’s she’s become because of it. Terezi isn’t close to her mother at all, both of them avoiding each other, ever since Terezi went blind and her father left them because of it, claiming he didn’t want to care for a blind child.

Which makes you wonder about Dave. He said he was adopted into the Lalonde household when he was ten. You wonder why that is.

“So… Most of our friends didn't exactly have a happy childhood, or some did, but they didn’t exactly have both parents.” He continues. “So… What was it like for you before your mom died?”

You thought about the question for a while, before smiling wistfully to yourself at the memories.

“It was happy. I remember being happy a lot while I was with them. My mom would always tell me bedtime stories and my dad did stupid sock puppets. They alternated from each other every night but I remember being happy all the time.” You tell him quietly, holding the shawl a little tighter around yourself. “Like I told you before, my mom told me a lot of stories of her and my dad and how they got together and how their relationship evolved. Along with it is a lot of romance movies which influenced the current product of the person you're talking to today.”

He’s got his face resting in his arms, fully giving you his attention. It’s… It’s nice to get to talk about the positives about your mom before she died. The dull ache of missing her was still there, but it was good to remember.

“That sounds really nice.” He says, barely audible that you thought you imagined hearing it. He sighs. “Yeah. That sounds really nice.”

The two of you lapse into silence as he looked out to the glaciers again. You worry your lip, the question at the tip of your tongue. You decide to just fuck it and ask away.

“What about you?” You ask him, voice coming out a bit raspy and quiet.

He seemed to tense, before cracking a mischievous smile and totally breaking the atmosphere. “Error, error. You’re not on a high enough level to unlock my secret tragic backstory.”

You swat him on the arm while he chuckles quietly. “Fuck you. I was being considerate with taking an interest in your life and this is the shit you give me? I would throw you overboard and watch you die of hypothermia if I wouldn’t get in trouble for committing murder.”

He rolls his eyes but there’s a small smile on his face. “Alright fine. I guess I can tell you a little bit.” He starts. “You already know I moved in with the Lalondes when I was ten. Rose’s mom was already taking therapy at this point. You also know that I got bullied as a lame and clueless kindergarten kid. Hell, I didn’t even know I was bullied until I was older. But anyway… I had a hard time transitioning from my old home to my new one. As you can probably already tell, anything, before I was ten, was kind of… Bad.”

You nod. “Kind of obvious, really. Were you even trying to hide it? Because if you were, you fucking failed big time.”

“Not… Really? I mean, I don’t really care who sees them anymore but I don’t actually feel comfortable _flaunting_ it around. Me and Rose had a fight about it during the beauty contest. I’m actually surprised you haven’t asked me about it yet.”

You scoffed. “I’m not an insensitive bastard. I know when a topic is too sensitive to bring up unless prompted by the other person. I had a lot of people try to talk to me about my mom when she died and I fucking hated it. All of the empty apologies and meaningless condolences. All of the fake inspirational talks they tried to shove my way. I know when not to probe people about sensitive topics because I knew I hated it when it happened to me during a bad time in my life.”

He raised an eyebrow at you. “I didn’t expect you to be subtle like that, Vantas. You always did shit so bluntly and honestly, I’m surprised at your ability to be that empathetic. You always just seemed so… Brash and straightforward all the time.”

You shrug. “Well, you are still getting to know me. This is just a new side you haven’t seen yet.” You tell him. “Plus, I never planned on asking you either. You’ll tell me if you want to at your own time, but I was fine with never finding out. I don’t care much for your ‘tragic backstory’, but not in the way you’re thinking- stop looking at me like that. I just meant that whatever happened to you in the past doesn’t define who you are now, and right now and  onwards is what really matters.”

You watch him swallow thickly beside you. “Fuck, Vantas. That’s some grade A poetic philosophical shit right there. Are you sure you’re not a ninety-year-old man in a seventeen-year-old kid’s body?”

Again, you swat him on the arm, harder this time, and he laughs.

Silence settled between you again since you’re not exactly sure how to answer him after everything you just dropped.

After a while of standing there with a cold breeze passing by, Dave speaks up again. “You wanna head inside and just read some books in the meantime?”

You shrug and push yourself away from the railing. “Sure. I’ve got a few books we can read.”

You head to your cabin whilst Dave followed close behind you. You close the door after him and shrug your shawl off and drape it at the footboard of the bed. Dave pulls off his own wool sweater and drapes it beside your shawl.

You pick up the three books you got for this exact reason and let him pick. He makes you read out the synopsis of each book before choosing. Of all three books you’ve offered (The others being The Space Between and The Notebook. You’ve chosen three books that feature three different relationship dynamics again) he picks ‘Fan Art’ for your reading session.

Something about the book he chose makes your heart skip a beat. Why? The synopsis of the book is about a boy in an art class with two girl friends determined to get him together with the best friend he's fallen in love with. You resolutely ignore the feeling though and read instead.

And that something that’s changed between the two of you makes itself known again. As you quietly read to him, he slowly migrates from his spot at the end of the couch to lean on your shoulder to watch and see the pages of the book. He’s being strangely close to you lately, when you fully expected him to keep his distance after what happened.

And it’s really unnerving you.

His heat by your side is distracting and his voice near your ear, whenever he makes comments about the book, makes you just want to beat his face in with the book for making you feel this way.

It’s infinitely frustrating.

But you stay quiet and focus all of your attention into reading to him. Despite all of your frustrations about the situation, the closeness is admittedly kind of nice. So you let him lean on you as you read to him on your couch.


	21. I've Got The Strangest Feeling This Isn't Our First Time Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 31 - Punta Arenas, Chile

Your chaperones had you guys hustling early in the morning.

Roxy was at your door at five in the morning and was especially merciless with her loud banging and a sing-song voice telling you to wake the fuck up. Groggily, you got out of bed and changed clothes, wrapping your sweater around your waist in case you needed it. It was pretty cold this early in the morning.

Your group was hustled into finishing breakfast early and as soon as the ship docks at the Punta Arenas pier, Roxy and the other chaperones were pushing you out of the ship. Apparently, you’ve got an early appointment to catch.

As suspected, it’s chilly out in the morning with the sun barely peeking over the horizon so you slipped your hoodie on.

Roxy got you all there just in time at six thirty in the morning. You can tell that everyone in your group was still too sleepy to really be enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Nonetheless, your tour guide gets you all aboard the boat with life jackets on and you’re off to wherever the fuck at ass crack in the morning.

Your group’s mood seems to immediately change though as you neared an island, your destination if you were to make an educated guess. And you were right.

Your boat docks on rocky shores and each of your group was quick to slip the life jackets off and jump off the boat onto land. Everyone was excited about the penguins.

Along the shoreline of what you were told is Magdalena Island, were these tiny black and white creatures waddling about the place in the dozens. Your group got to be up close to them as some crowded around you, curious about its new visitors.

There weren’t any people around either, you guess you’re all the first ones to get here.

Your group takes pictures of and with the penguins, Jade taking a particular liking to the cute waddling creatures. They were probably at knee height at most.

There were also white birds flocking around the place in large groups, some hopping about on land while others took to the sky in a careful formation as they flew.

“Look Karkat, it's your long lost distant cousins.” Dave teases beside you, camera in his hand per usual. You pointedly glare at him.

“Is that supposed to be a joke about my height?” You accuse. He smirks, clearly amused.

“They’re short and are black and white. Pretty much the same as you since your wardrobe does consist of various shades of black and white and everything between those two.”

You scowled. “That’s literally the worst fucking insult I’ve ever heard from you. And it’s not the good kind of bad either. That was literally just a shitily made insult. I’m disappointed in you, Dave.”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes, bringing his camera up to his face to snap a photo of you. You growled in protest and proceed to have a lighthearted banter with him.

The tour guide talks about the flightless birds as you all interacted with them. He talks about the interesting behaviours and mating habits of the creatures, referring to the dozens of small penguin burrows littering the sand of the island. After a while, may an hour or two, your tour guide begins to lead your group onto the next section of the excursion.

You follow a trail further into the small island, a few of your friends delighting in some of the penguins waddling beside them as if following them. Eventually, though, they stopped following after you as you hike further up to the highest elevation of the place.

Your tour guide takes you up to a pretty little historical lighthouse that housed some interesting exhibits and regarding the ecosystem of the enclave. Your group tours around the place one by one, your tour guide giving you more insight about each exhibit you enter.

After that, you get free roam around the place. Your friends take pictures of everything in the exhibits along with each of them posing in front of previously mentioned exhibits.

You spend another hour or two around the place before your tour guide rounds you up to wrap up the excursion as you hike back down to the rocky beach of the penguins.

You all hop back onto the speedboat and slip your life vests back on before setting sail back to the mainland. Along the way though, you pass through other islands where there were sea lions and elephant seals along the shoreline. Your group makes sure to snap a couple photos of them before they completely passed them by.

You return to the mainland around ten to eleven in the morning. Your chaperones graciously decide to have an early lunch for the day considering how early you all woke and how little you ate at breakfast with how much Roxy and the others were urging your group to move faster.

You roamed around the main plaza of Punta Arenas, Plaza Munoz Gamero. The place was filled with tourists now that the city is more awake. There, you find someplace to eat and try more of the exotic dishes local around the place.

Afterwards is when you really got to tour around the place, buying from street vendors and shops all the same for souvenirs.

Before one though, your chaperones lead you to your next activity, a hike in Magallanes National Reserve.

The hike was easy enough to follow, with red markers around the trees. There were much pretty flora and fauna around the place and Dave was certainly taking advantage of the high sunlight and the natural forest around, taking very sophisticated photos of random things. Your friends indulged in light chatter as well, snapping photos around the place. Although, the only downside is the fact that it was quick muddy around the trail.

Your group was lucky enough to see a few woodpeckers along the trees and other fauna present around the place.

At some point during the pleasantly quiet walk, Terezi and Sollux had taken your sides while Dave lagged behind the group, taking photos. They, of course, wanted to know what was up between you and the blond-haired fuck because the two of you had been inseparable the whole trip so far.

Your group of friends don’t actually know what’s happened between you and Strider and the whole kiss debacle. And of course, with the way Terezi and Sollux talk, they manage to pull the words right out of your mouth.

“So, the two of you have kissed? Are you guys like, an item?” Sollux questions you, nudging your shoulder with his own.

Terezi feigns a dramatic gasp. “Karkles! I can’t believe you would hide something like this! From me of all people too!” She exclaims, exaggerating her voice while you roll your eyes. The subject still makes your cheeks burn though.

“No, we’re not a _thing_. We’re just friends, the kiss was a stupid mistake.” You sigh, ready to be over with this conversation already.

“What you’re saying is you two aren’t a thing?” Pyrope repeats, a sly smile clear all over her face.

“ _Yet_.” Sollux finishes for her, nudging you into Terezi who shoves you back his way, the two of them laughing while you burned in your misery.

“God, can the two of you at least fucking quiet down if you’re gonna talk about this?!” You hissed under your breath. Terezi throws an arm around you as you walked.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE YOUR CRUSH KARKLES, I NEVER IMAGINED YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD LIKE THEM.” She purposefully speaks as loudly as she can and you get a few glances your way from your friends. A look behind you tells you that Dave’s attention was swayed from his picture taking as well.

You try and shove Terezi away as she cackles just as Jade, Aradia, and John slow down so they can walk with you too and join in on the gossip.

“Karkles has a crush?” Jade questions, looking from you to Pyrope, then to Captor. Both of them had shit eating grins you’d love to wipe off of their faces.

“Yep. And you’ll never guess who it is!” Terezi supplies and just as Sollux is opening his mouth, you put a hand over it to shut his fucking trap.

“No, I do fucking not. These little shits are completely making shit up, go the fuck away Harley and John- _stop giving me those looks before I literally maim you until your head pops off using only my bare hands._ ”

Aradia giggles. “With the way he’s denying it, I’m betting that he most definitely does have a crush.” She says slyly, giving you a side eye and you really wish you could just stab your own eye out at this point.

Sollux licks your hand to get you to get your hands off from his mouth. You scowled and rubbed your hands over his shirt. “Try and guess who KK might have the hots for.” He challenges and you cover your face with both hands. Facepalm combo 2x.

“God, are you all fucking thirteen-year-olds in middle school, talking about crushes like it’s the biggest deal in your poor, sad and pathetic lives?” You complained and they completely ignore you. The little fuckers.

Jade starts looking around the group while John just snickers at you like the fucker already knows your secrets.

“Someone we wouldn’t expect, right?” Jade clarifies, pushing her round glasses up. Terezi nods a little too enthusiastically.

“Alright, is it a girl or a boy?” Aradia asks.

“No more hints, that’s all you’re getting.” Terezi cackles, patting your back a little too hard and causing you to stumble.

“Is it Tavros?” Aradia guesses first before she and Harley alternate, asking in rapid fire.

“Gamzee?” No.

“Vriska?” _Dear god fuck no_.

“Feferi?” Nope.

“Equius?” Uh, _no_.

“Aradia!”

“What the fuck, Harley?” You ask incredulously while Aradia just seems surprised by the idea of it.

“Listen, Karkat, you know I like you as a friend and all but-" Aradia starts to say, jokingly sincere for a moment before she couldn’t stop herself and ended up snorting and laughing, Jade joining her.

“It’s Dave, isn’t it?” John pipes up, an eyebrow raised with an unfamiliar cocky smile you immediately hate.

“NO!” You deny vehemently, shouting it before the other two beside you can interject. Sollux snorts and Terezi smiles at you, clearly amused.

Jade gasps, bringing both of her hands over to her face. “Oh my god, Karkat!”

“No, shut your fucking mouth Harley before I grab this dirt and mud we’re walking on and shove it down your larynx until you choke and die from it.”

Aradia and she simply share a glance and your face is definitely not hot. It’s just the sun and the thick sweater you’re wearing.

All six of you chat some more throughout the rest of the hike, but your mind is stuck on Dave. A glance behind you told you that he’s resumed in taking his pretty pictures.

You wonder what he’s thinking because you know he definitely heard at least some of your friends’ loud chatter, if not all of it.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The nature trail was only about two hours long, your group only taking the short route around the place. The longest hike apparently lasts three to four hours but your chaperones have other plans for your group before the cruise leaves at seven p.m.

The next tourist spot was at Museo Maggiorino Borgatello. A museum about the complete ethnological, historical, and biological collection about the strait.

The place was interesting with all the exhibits they had to offer. Other tourists were roaming around the place as well but the museum was otherwise pretty quiet. Like it usually is in museums. Even your friends made sure to talk only in hushed whispers. The only sounds made were footsteps and the sound of cameras flashing.

What was most interesting about the place though were probably the was figures in a display showing the ancient natives and other important people throughout the place’s history. You mostly roamed around with Kanaya and Rose around these parts since it has been a little while since you hung out with your favourite lesbians.

When you jokingly asked about how things were going in their married life, they actually thanked you since they forgot to back when you helped the girls out during a cruise party where Rose got blackout drunk. They update you on their status and that they’re very happy together. There are a few bumps along the road still, some misunderstanding and disagreements, but that comes along with almost any healthy relationship.

Dave and Aradia surprisingly teamed up for this tour around the museum, both of them seemingly into talking about archaeology and paleontology when your group enters it’s specific exhibit. Looks like you just found another interest of Dave’s by pure accident. You’ll ask him about it later.

Your group spent a good two hours trying to see everything the museum has to offer, which is actually quite a lot.

Eventually though, at four, you had to leave to cram in your last destinations in Punta Arenas.

Your group hops out into Río Las Minas, a river found around the city. You do a quick stop to check it out, snap a few photos, before hopping back into the cars you’ve rented out and head out once again.

Your last stop was at Mirador Cerro De La Cruz. It’s quite a bit of a climb to the top, but at five with the slowly sinking sun, it was actually quite relaxing. And once you do get to the top, the view was well worth it.

The top was a pretty architecturally built observation platform.

From here, you can see the whole city, colourful houses and buildings littering the place. Street lights that were turning on as the night slowly crept in also helped give the view a sparkling effect. You can also see the strait of Magellan along with the sea far in the distance of the city. The orange-pink glow of the sky made the place even prettier to look at.

Your group climbed all the way to the top of an observation tower and there, you all rested and took a seat on the stone seats available. You took photos but afterwards, most of your friends had just taken the time to stay silent and watch the place light up in serenity.

Dave takes a seat beside you after a while of you just sitting down and staring at the view, mind contemplative. “So. We’re pretty far into the cruise now. Basically halfway done. What do you think of the trip so far now?” He asks you, voice hushed but still audible.

“I like it. I’m really happy to be here with all of my bestest of friends and the memories we’ve made so far during each and every one of our expeditions. Its definitely something I wouldn’t forget. Not for a very very long time. Nothing could probably beat this experience.” Without ever taking your eyes off the view, you answered him honestly.

He hums in acknowledgement. When he nudges you with his elbow, you finally look at him to see him offering an earbud to you. You raise an eyebrow at him.

“The view looks perfect so I thought I’d make it even more memorable with some music. I think you’d like to hear what I have to play.”

You furrow your brow in skepticism but take the earbud and put it on nonetheless. “This better not be more of your trash meme music or something that’ll totally ruin the mood. I won’t hesitate to throw you off this observation deck, Strider.”

He fiddles with his phone, a smirk playing on his lips. “I wouldn’t doubt your ability to do that.”

Then, music plays in your ears.

And it’s something you recognize.

The tune starts out with the sound of waves, but this time accompanied by a soft and faint violin. As the song plays, it transitions to the same guitar you’ve heard before but complemented with complex notes of a piano following its flow all while the steady push and pull of the waves played in the background. It plays for a little while and once again, you’re transfixed in the music that’s playing in your ears. Coupled with the view, you feel very tranquil and at peace with yourself, right here at this moment.

You glance at Dave and is pleasantly surprised to see him having slipped his shades off to better view the place with. When he notices you staring, he smiles softly at you and you have to avert your eyes.

Your mouth feels dry and your heart is beating at a hundred miles per hour inside your chest. Each beat plays loudly in your ears as blood rushes to your face from your neck. You’re acutely aware that his hand is just a few inches away from yours. But you keep still, tightening your grip around the edge of the seat you’re occupying.

Everything feels too intense, the colours too vibrant, the music too loud. There’s that strong pull in your gut, that deep wanting to just be _near_ him, so much so that it’s almost hard to breathe.

The feelings feel so familiar, but you don’t think you’ve ever felt this overwhelming amount of emotion for anyone. But with Dave, it almost feels natural, like this was bound to happen, like it has, a million times over, in different times and different worlds and different lives. Again and again and again. A keen sense of deja vu.

Like this was always meant to happen.

Like you were meant to fall in love with him from the very beginning.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Your bed feels too big and too empty for the first time since you’ve slept in it.

You’re contemplating what you felt back at the end of your trip. It’s the first time it’s felt so searingly intense, so much that you definitely couldn’t ignore it.

What was that?

With a sigh, you roll around on your bed and fetch your phone from the bedside cabinet. You check his account and find a new photo of you like you expected. He always seems to have one of you for every place you visit.

This time, it’s another side profile of you facing to the left, hands in your pocket. It’s from the museum when you were looking at the wax figures behind the glass. The soft amber glow of the place compliments your skin and the glass you’re facing has a pretty effect of reflecting your image back to you clearly in the photo. It’s just a photo but it still makes your heart pound.

You shut your eyes tightly and throw your phone back onto the side cabinet. You pull the string on your lamp and let the darkness surround you once more.

You dream again tonight. You dream of soft lips against your own, moving languidly and lazily, but you can’t see who it is. It’s just darkness and you can’t seem to open your eyes. You dream of warm hands on your waist, pulling you close against a warmer body. You dream of something soft under your fingertips, the sensation of touch addictive.

When you wake up in the morning, the first face that your mind supplies you for the stranger in the dream makes your cheeks burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, fun story time! 
> 
> The reason I first started this fic in the first place is because of another fic that I read and had ended in expected tragedy from the very beginning. It was beautifully fucking written and I cried like a little bitch about it. But anyway, it had something to do with memories and timelines and shit so to make myself feel better, I adopted a super cheesy as fuck headcanon so the ending won't seem as tragic as it is (newsflash, It didn't fucking work and the story was still tragic as fuck).
> 
> So, this was a feel better fic based off of another previous fic I read. Actually, with all of the au fics that I've read, I adopted a headcanon that ties them all together even if they totally weren't meant to. It's just my own perspective because I'm a sappy little bitch that just wants the fucking best for my bestest bby bois.
> 
> The headcanon? That every different fic story is just showing an alternate timeline/universe and my two boys are just always meant to be with each other, no matter the fucking circumstance and world they're in. I know right? Cheesy as fuck. But I stick with it bc it makes me super happy.
> 
> But anyway, I just thought I'd let ya'll know about how this fic was born and the reason for the remembering memories elements of it. I'm pretty sure you've all fuckin figured the remembering thing anyway. Just an additional explanation to pump that sugary fluff into your veins and kill you with diabetes from how sweet it is. Ta-da! I hope that you find that the slow burn was totally worth it when we finally get to the part where they get together in a totally cliche fashion but one I haven't seen done yet. At least, if there is a fic that's done it, I haven't read it. 
> 
> My goal with the fics I write is to deliver something new to the ship that's never been done before. At least I haven't seen done before yet. There's a bunch of classic fanfiction plots already written wonderfully out there so I wanted to add some variety. There's your fake dating scheme, your meteor fics, demonstuck, high school aus, college aus, porn with plot fics, a whole selection of other fics. So I hope you enjoy this ride I've offered and found it to be at least a little different from the others. Thank you for sticking around even though it's not perfect and threre's a lot of mistakes that needs fixing. I'm very thankful. I appreciate all of the support I'm getting for a stupid fic I started based off of my petty emotions and utter wish fullfillment.
> 
> We're finishing this bitch, ladies and gentlemen. Mark my fucking words or shoot me in the goddamn head. We're making this happen.


	22. We Just Keep On Passing By Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 32 - Ushuaia, Argentina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter again, sorry :')
> 
> Prepare to be frustrated and hate me even more.
> 
> I a m s o s o r r y :')

There wasn’t much time for resting after the all-day trip you had at Punta Arenas. But thankfully, you weren’t woken up at early times in the morning this time since the ship docks to port at twelve noon. Meaning you’re able to sleep in before heading out for the day.

By the time you woke up it was at ten in the morning and you enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with some of your friends. For the next two hours waiting for your ship to get to Ushuaia, you watched a couple of movies on the television. Roxy was there to knock on your door and tell you that you’re heading out for the day again. At least this time, she isn’t knocking like crazy in order to wake you up.

For the day’s plans, you have a guided boat tour through the Beagle Channel and various other islands first. This will take about four hours from what Roxy tells your group and you’ll only be able to fit one more place to visit afterwards.

The tour was with Patagonia Adventure Explorer with a boat that’s big enough to carry all of you and still have plenty of space to move around. And a bonus for Eridan is that the boat was big enough so you don’t feel every wave that hits the boat, meaningless sea sickness for him.

Your group easily got settled in and you began your tour with a guide. His name was Ricardo. Ricardo was a pretty nice dude.

The first stop was at De Los Pájaros Island. Your boat gets up close enough to see some wildlife and take pictures. It’s a bird island and Ricardo tells you the types of birds that can be seen around the place. Birds like kelp gulls, dolphin gulls, snowy sheathbills, flightless steamer ducks, and South American terns among the shags.   


You idled for a little while there, taking pictures of the numerous birds around the place before the boat starts moving again onto your next destination.

Next was De Los Lobos Island and is inhabited by a bunch of sea lions. You see some swimming around while a lot of the others were just chilling the shores and rocks. Your tour guide tells you that during this time is when young sea lions are born and sure enough, your group saw a couple little babies padding around near their parents.

Feferi especially found this adorable and took lots of pictures of the baby sea lions. You slowly moved around the island, seeing the sea lions doing their thing in their natural habitat all while Ricardo tells you all about them and their behaviours and mating rituals. After a little bit, the boat starts to move again onto the next island in your itinerary.

While on your way to the next spot, the nice staff on board offers your crew some snacks and drinks along the way.

The Bridges Island is where your boat gets to dock and your group actually lands on the ground of the islands.

Ricardo walks your group through the grassy plains of the island to see the ancient settlements of the Yamana people, the natives of the land. Along the way, you saw some pretty flora and birds flying ahead. Ricardo enthusiastically tells you all about the history and other facts of the place. He’s a great tour guide since he actually sounds like he genuinely likes spewing this information repeatedly on a daily basis.

Your guide takes you to the highest point on the island and you get to have a view of the place from there. Photos were taken and you were admittedly pretty amazed.

It’s around three when he walks you back down to the boat and speed off to your last destination.

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse is where you went to next. This one is probably the smallest the island yet with a tiny red and white lighthouse tower on it. Ricardo tells you a little about its history as you take pictures.

You only stay for a little bit before the boat is finally heading back to the mainland, concluding your tour of the place.

Your group spends the rest of the time in Tierra del Fuego National Park. Your chaperones gave you free roam around the place as long as you know your way back to the information cabin where you’ll meet up before you leave to grab dinner for the night.

Dave takes this time to walk around the park with you, fiddling with his camera. You’re just walking aimlessly, hands in your pocket and watching the sky turn that familiar pinkish purple colour as the sun begins to set.

You hear a click of a camera beside you and find that Dave has captured another picture of you. For once, you don’t fight him about it.

“By the way…” He starts, scrolling through the camera and not looking at you. “I heard some of the shit from yesterday.”

Fuck. You knew this conversation would pop up sooner rather than later. You rolled your eyes. “It’s nothing. They’re just being troublesome little shitheads determined to make my life complete hell.”

He glances at you once before turning back to his camera. “Thought that was a job that’s exclusively mine.”

“Surprise, asshole! You were fired two weeks ago.”

A beat of silence. “Are you saying that I was fired because I wasn’t doing a good enough job of making you miserable? Is that your roundabout way of telling me that I make your life better, Kitkat?” A smirk.

“What- No, that’s not-” Your face feels hot and you curl your fingers into a fist. You growled in exasperation and stomp your foot petulantly. “That’s not what I fucking meant and you know it.”

But.

But that is kind of what you’re implying, right? It’s not entirely untrue either, he’s made your life more interesting lately but you’re also frustrated at him with all of this feelings bullshit and to be honest, you’re infinitely done with dealing with feelings for the rest of your life. God, why is being seventeen so hard?

“Sounds to me like that’s exactly what you’re saying, Kitkat.” He teases, nudging you with his elbow. You shove him back hard, making him stumble but not fall. He laughs quietly at your attempt.

“Seriously though, do you have like, someone you like?” He asks you and you let a sigh escape you. “I mean like, we’ve talked about first kisses and shit, might as well go all the way and ask about teenage crushes like a bunch of fifteen-year-old high school girls at a sleepover at Jenny’s. So, is there anyone you fancy?”

“God, I am not answering if you phrase it like that, you disgusting shit monger.”

“Alright, fine. So, who do you dream of sucking face with and holding hands and doing sappy shit with?”

“Again, your phrasing.”

He shrugs. “Are you going to answer or not?”

You think about it for a little while, looking up at the sky in thought. Telling him that you  _ do  _ like someone wouldn’t do much harm. Then, you find yourself nodding. “Yeah. I do. But don’t you dare fucking tell anyone or I’ll pull your guts out, have the cruise chef cook it, then serve it to your fucking family, Strider.”

He laughs, raising both hands in defeat. “Of course. Bro code, dude. I won’t spread that shit like it’s butter on a warm fresh set of toast.”

“Good.” The two of you are silent for a little while, walking side by side, shoulders barely brushing one another.

“So, can I ask who is it?” He asks after a while, eyes focused on his feet as the two of you walked. “Or like, just give me a hint or something like that.”

“They’re an asshole.” You’re quick to reply, crossing your arms. Dave snorts.

“Bro, you literally think everyone’s an asshole. That doesn’t narrow shit down at all.”

“No shit, Sherlock. That’s the fucking point.”

He groans and dramatically cranes his head back towards the sky. “You’re pulling my dick here, Vantas.”

“I’d rather not. I wouldn’t get near your disgusting meat sack in a hundred years, Strider.”

“So does that mean you will once a hundred years is over?” He suggests, waggling his eyebrows. You shove his face away from yours.

“No, maggot infested shit for brains. By hundred years I meant never. Y’know, hyperbole? Do I have to reteach you this shit, Strider? Because if you forgot about simple terms like this, I’m sorry to say, you’re gonna have to repeat your whole junior year while the rest of us finish our senior years.”

He scoffs. “You’re so full of shit, man.”

You worry your lip for a moment, silence settling between the two of you. “What about you?” Manage to get out, hating the feeling of your dry throat.

“Hm? What?”

You bite the inside of your cheek. But you can’t help, you’re curious. “Do you like anyone?”

He looks at you for a little while before shrugging, faux-casual. “Yeah, I guess. I guess there is this someone that I like. Someone I’ve actually liked for a while now.”

“Oh.” Was all you can muster, hating the sinking feeling in your stomach. You’ve been reading into things wrong, as usual. You’ve been over analyzing things like usual.

He’s already got someone he likes, and it’s been a while now.

“For how long have you, um, liked this person?” You fucking hate yourself.

He has that little small smile on his face like he’s remembering something fondly and your stomach twists even worse than before. Another shrug. “I think I’ve liked them since I met them. Just took me a really long while to realize it. Even longer to do anything about it.”

You nod slowly, biting your lip.

Obviously, that can’t be you, then. You’ve mutually disliked each other up until the start of the cruise. You expected this. So why does it still hurt?

“Um, I think I’ll head back to the information building. I think I’ve had enough of nature for the day.” You tell him, turning on your heel and making your way back before he can even answer.

It doesn’t hurt. If you say it enough times, you’ll start to believe it. It doesn’t hurt.

You don’t care. Why did he make you care? The chances have been slim to almost nonexistent. Why do you have to care so much all the time? Feel everything so much all the time?

You don’t care. It doesn’t hurt.

It doesn’t.

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Another day, another photo of you. This time, it’s at sunset where you were staring up at the sky, purples and pinks painting it like a canvas. Only your shoulders up are visible, the point of interest being the sky. You ignore the comments.

This time, it just makes you feel a dull numbness. The feeling follows you as you go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But hey! I'm 90% done with the fic, and I estimated that there's approximately 40 to 50 thousand words dedicated to just pure davekat fluff, so there's that to look forward to.


	23. On Top

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 33 - Cape Horn, Chile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man here's another chapter I enjoyed writing very much XD The next one is one my favourites too.

The ship is cruising through Cape Horn meaning you’ll all be staying on the ship for the day. You thank a god you don’t believe in because having to go out every day for a full day of being a tourist is hard. And tiring.

You wake up at ten in the morning and have your usual breakfast, with Jade and John this time around.

The weather is nice with a warm breeze passing by. The sun was out in full force again and you watched the ship slowly cruise by the island, noting note of a few birds and interesting rock formations along the mountainous parts.

You’re not entirely sure how long you spend by the railings just outside your cabin, but you haven’t seen Strider anywhere since yesterday.

You had come to an ultimate decision this morning. You’ll be putting some distance between you and the blond for the remaining of the cruise, which you’re already halfway done with anyway. By distance, you mean you’ll still hang out with him and not completely avoid him, but you’ll keep yourself a friendly distance away. The way he’s been getting close to you lately is making you crazy and you’d really rather not go insane while you still have a little bit more to enjoy on the cruise.

That resolve lasts up until twelve at noon.

spider8itch (Vris)  
  
Pool party at top deck.  
  
Attendance is MANDATORY!!!!!!!!  
  
Failure to attend will result in a full on hunting party 8y yours truly and her merciless prosecutor, Neophyte Redglare!!!!!!!!  
  
 8e there or get dragged there!  
  
The choice is yours. Hopefully, you don't make the stupid one.  
  
I don't have very high expectations though.

 

 

 

 

And so, you end up at the top deck with the rest of your friends, the scrooge sisters standing over at the diving board like they’re about announce something very important.

“Alright, losers! Me and Terezi here came up with a plan for the day for everyone to enjoy! We’ve got chaperone permission to move ahead with this plan!” Serket announces, feet apart and hands on her hips. Terezi is grinning maniacally behind her. “What are we going to do, you ask? I’ll let my partner in crime elaborate!”

You hear your chaperones talking with each other. Apparently, none of them knew this was happening except for Roxy who went ahead and green-lighted the whole thing without discussing with the rest of the chaperones.

She moves aside to let Pyrope take the ‘stage’. A couple of people chilling at the top deck are giving your group strange looks. You just put a hand over your face and drag it down.

“We’ll be playing a classic pool party game! Chicken fights! Also known was shoulder wars, but that sounds lame so we’re calling it chicken fights!” The blind girl announces enthusiastically. Whispers go through your friends and some of them are actually pretty excited.

And then the girls begin to draw out each rule before starting the game. “No hair pulling!” Terezi lifts up a finger and wiggles it from side to side. “Or you will be prosecuted and most definitely be found guilty by Neophyte Redglare!”

“No punching! I know, shocker that it’s coming from me of all people. But not absolutely no punching, we don’t actually want any injuries here!” Vriska announces afterwards.

“No biting! In case you were thinking if it, it’s completely outlawed!” Terezi.

“No kicking either! Everything from the waist below will stay below!” Vriska.

“No trying to pull off anybody’s swimsuits to gain advantage either! I see you ladies with bikini tops! Basically, just don’t play dirty, it isn’t fun for anyone.” Terezi.

“As soon as the person loses balance and hits the water, you’re eliminated!” Vriska.

“If we see you breaking any of the rules above, you will also be immediately eliminated!” Terezi.

“This is made in a tournament style! Two games at once to determine the matches until we have a pair of winners!” Vriska.

“What’s the prize?? What’s the point of all of this?? To get you properly motivated, we each stole one item from all of you and the winner gets to decide whether to give them back or keep them!”

Annnnnnd that definitely caught people’s attention. There are hushed whispers about what items went missing or they’re already wondering where that one item went in the first place.

“God, this is so fucking lame.” You hear Dave mutter beside you, tucking his hands into his pockets.

Terezi claps her hands loudly to gain back people’s attention. Vriska uses this to announce the final twist. “For all of you losers already teaming up, don’t! We’re choosing teams to make this shit as interesting as possible!”

That got people talking again while the scrouge sisters high-fived with big shit eating grins on their faces.

They left the diving board to walk around the pool and approach your team. Soon, they started assigning people into pairs. Your hate for Vriska and Terezi just went up ten-fold.

As they were assigning people, you see Terezi whisper in Vriska’s ear whose eyes immediately flicked to you, a grin spreading on her lips. You already know where this is going.

The Serket points at you. “Yo, Vantas! You’re with Strider! And don’t even fucking open your mouth to complain like you always do, there’s absolutely no switching happening here!”

And so, the teams are this:

Top: Rose, Bottom: Kanaya

Top: Jade, Bottom: John

Top: Jane, Bottom: Dirk

Top: Roxy, Bottom: Jake

Top: Tavros, Bottom: Gamzee

Top: Eridan, Bottom: Feferi (you fucking laughed when it was announced. Apparently Feferi wanted to bottom because she moves her feet better underwater than Eridan does along with keeping her balance better. Being a swimmer’s advantage)

Top: Aradia, Bottom: Sollux

Top: Nepeta, Bottom: Equius

Top: Terezi, Bottom: Vriska (they’re joining the competition too. Apparently they’ll have the chaperones eye for any rule breaking when they’re up for playing)

And of course,

Top: You, Bottom: Dave

Your plan this morning just absolutely went to hell.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The first two games are up.

The first game is you and Dave against Jane and Dirk. The second game playing somewhere else in the pool (to avoid the games crashing into each other) is Nepeta and Equius against Roxy and Jake.

You wished that you wouldn’t go first but here you are. With Dave’s head between your thighs. But not in the way you’d like it to be. You’re really trying your hardest not to pop a fucking boner here that would make shit so much more awkward compared to the kiss in Coquimbo. So instead of focusing on the idea of being on top of Dave’s shoulder, you focus on your opponents instead.

“Dave.” Dirk greeted with a smirk.

“Dirk.” Dave acknowledged a smirk of his own.

“I am so sorry about this, Karkat.” Jane is already apologizing to you, but her cheery demeanour says otherwise. “But you’re going to have to lose this first round.”

“Oh, it is fucking _on_ , Crocker.” You bite back and in the background, you can hear Vriska counting down.

“Three… Two… One!” And as soon as the whistle blows, the game is on.

There was a lot of water splashing and the two Striders trash talking one another for a lack of a better thing to do, while you did all the work.

Surprisingly, Jane is pretty tough and you’re just barely holding her off from toppling you. This goes on for a while and you’re sure you’re going to lose with how shit your stamina is when it comes to anything that needs physical exertion.

“Hey, you fucking do that bro!” Dirk was whining and you’re not sure what’s happening but suddenly Jane’s grip on you slackens and you’re able to push her backwards.

“It’s totally valid, dude. They said no kicking, but what I did was definitely not kicking. And it doesn’t say in the rules that I can’t use my legs or that the bottom can’t retaliate either.” Dave rambled on as the two of your opponents resurfaced from the water. Jane was looking around for glasses but you have no idea how Dirk is able to fucking retain his shades on his face after going underwater.

“You cheeky little fucker,” Dirk says but without malice, laughing quietly.

“You and Rose aren’t the only smart ones who can think up of a loophole.”

You’re just utterly confused.

“Alright, little bro. I’m giving you this one.” He says good-naturedly and flicks Dave in the nose. Then he moves to the edge of the pool with Jane to get out of the water. You slip off of Dave’s shoulders and swim back to the edge to get out as well.

“Our round one winners are Vantas and Strider!” Vriska announces, blowing her whistle.

“What the fuck happened back there?” You demand more than ask, sitting at the edge of the pool with your feet underwater.

Dave lifts himself up to sit beside you, a smug smirk of his face. “Loophole.” He tells you. You give him a deadpan look and he chuckles before elaborating. “I hooked my feet behind his and pulled, getting him to go off balance and tip a bit backwards. Like I said, not exactly kicking and there are no rules that say I can’t play either.”

You look at him a bit surprised. “Wow. So you do have a brain you can use to think. You should do it more often, Strider.”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes but you grin and offer him a fistbump anyway. He looks at you with mild fascination at the gesture but touches his knuckles against yours.

“Our round two winners are Lalonde and English!” Terezi announces this time, blowing her whistle.

The two of you get out of the water as instructed by Terezi and go over to sit at one of the beach chairs laid all over the swimming pool. You push it back to the shade to avoid the sun and watch as the next games played.

The next games that are played are by Vriska and Terezi, against Gamzee and Tavros. Their game goes even faster than your own, Dirk doing the winners announcing this time. “Round three winners are Pyrope and Serket!”

The other game lasts quite a bit though, and back forth between Rose and Kanaya against Eridan and Feferi. Just when the latter think they’ve cornered the other, Kanaya surges forward and Rose uses the momentum to push Eridan backwards and tip of off Feferi’s shoulders.

“Our round four winners are Lalonde and Maryam!” Terezi is the one to announce this game, blowing her whistle for an unnecessarily long amount of time.

From your perch, you can actually a see a few other passengers exchanging money and betting on the games being played. What the fuck.

There’s only one game played after that, giving the ones that recently played some time to rest for a bit before they fight it out again. This time, it's Aradia and Sollux against Jade and John.

There’s a lot of cheering for both sides but you and Dave just sit back and relax, occasionally talking and sharing comments to one another about the game.

And yep, other passengers are definitely betting on the games and using your group as a form of entertainment. You see a few exchanging hands.

“Our round five winners are Harley and Egbert!” Vriska announces.

And then it’s your turn on the games again. This time, you’re going against the previous winners before Jade and John.

“Hey there, cool kids.” Terezi drawls, voice sounding like nails on chalkboard being scraped down _really_ slowly.

“Since when did Karkat graduate into a cool kid, Pyrope?” Dave questions, feigning offence. You tug on his hair and he makes a quiet ‘ow’ noise under you.

“Since you devolved into mundane human just now, Dave.” Terezi giggles, but it’s not the cute type of giggle Nepeta or Aradia would make. It honestly sounds pretty fucking shady. Terezi is pretty fucking shady.

Again, Dave feigns a gasp. “Get off right now, Karkat. Me and you, we gotta fight this out. I gotta defend my cool kid honour.” You pull on his hair again and he curses.

“Shut the fuck up, Strider. Let’s just get on with this so we can own your asses.” Vriska goads, smile as sharp as ever.

Again, you hear Dirk in the distance counting down. “Three… Two… One!” And the whistle is blown.

Vriska’s fucking fast for someone who has to wade through water. You’ve barely moved and Terezi is on you, grappling with your upper arms and trying to shake you off.

You hold up on your own though, Dave taking slow steps backwards to keep you from tipping over. The bad thing about that is that just makes Vriska surge forward, effectively trying to trap you much like what Feferi and Eridan had tried.

As you’re trying to fend Terezi off, with her loud cackling and distracting shark-like grin, an idea pops into your mind.

Having to fight someone you know has its advantage.

You grit your teeth and try to time this right. There’s a moment where Terezi get just a little too far away to keep pushing you before Vriska gains ground and she’s on you again. You’re aware you don’t have much time either as Dave keeps taking steps back. You’ll hit a wall sooner or later.

So when the opportunity presents itself and Terezi’s push slackens just a bit because of distance, you take both hands off her upper arm and poke her hard in the abdomen. This immediately gets her whole grip to slacken on you as she crumples in on herself, trying to get her stomach away from your fingers all while she laughs.

Tickling was never against the rules.

This forces Vriska to take steps back and away from you so Terezi can recover but Dave wades through the water to keep you close enough to the Pyrope girl to push her off by her abdomen. Terezi flops backwards, her laughter bubbling our as she goes underwater for a moment.

“Cheater!” Terezi accuses as soon as she resurfaces, still smiling and laughing a little.

“Nope. You never specified that tickling wasn’t allowed. It’s totally legal.” You say, crossing your arms, smug.

“I said no playing dirty!” Terezi counters, doing her little pout.

“Nope. You never specified what playing dirty even means so your counter argument is invalid.”

“It’s true, we never specified that, Tez.” Vriska says, turning to the blind girl and putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh wow, Serket is actually playing fair? That’s a first.” Dave pipes up, whistling. Vriska glares at both of you.

“I’ve been winning so many times that it just got boring.” She retorts.

“Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.” You smirk as the two started wading back to the edge of the pool. You and Strider follow, climbing up the pool as your names are announced as winners.

“Our round seven winners are Vantas and Strider!” Dirk blows the whistle.

You hadn’t noticed but the other game playing beside you has ended and you have no idea who won that one.

“Alright, break time everybody. Our semi-finals and finals are about to start next round! You all get fifteen minutes of rest time!” Vriska announces as everyone starts moving off the pool to grab some fresh refreshments from the counter.

“Nice loopholing, dude.” Dave comments to you, offering his drink for a clink. You lazily hit the edge of your glass against his.

“Thanks.” You reply as you take a sip of your pomegranate juice. There’s a variety of different juices available and you’ve been trying each one as much as you can. Pomegranates weren’t too bad, the only downside is that the juice itself makes you look like you’re drinking blood. Blood with ice inside. Eugh.

You and Strider chat some more and this whole event has taken your mind off of your feelings. Right now, you’re just enjoying the sunshine with your friends by the pool and playing classic pool games.

Eventually, though, the games start up again and you’re up against Jade and John this time.

“Hi, Karkat! Hi Dave!” Jade greets enthusiastically like you aren’t about to wrestle in the water.

“Hi, Jade.” You and Dave both say in unison and you glance down at him while he glances up at you. You flush and move your attention back up to Harley, trying to ignore the heat in between your thighs.

Jade giggles. “The two of you are so cute!”

“We’re gonna take you down!” John says happily.

“In your dreams dude. Me and Karkat got this in the bag.” And even more trash talking. Honestly, you’re not sure about going against Harley. For looking like a delicate flower girl who’s all happy go lucky, you’re well aware of how ruthless she can get. And she does it _smiling_. And she’s definitely physically more fit than you. For once you’re actually kinda nervous. Jade is just someone you would not want to pick a fight with, for fun and games or otherwise.

Before long though, the whistle is blown and the pair of you are at it again. And just like you suspected, Jade is a lot stronger and more insistent than your previous two games. And she’s doing it with a smile and laughter like this is effortless to her while it takes a lot of your energy to keep her from pushing you off.

This push and pulling go on for a bit and it seems like their tactic is to tire you out. Which is working because again, you’re weak as fuck in the endurance department.

What’s more is that near the end, John blows a raspberry at Dave getting spittle all over the place, making Dave complain and back away way too fast for your liking, causing you to lose just a bit of balance, enough for Harley to push you over.

You hear cheering even when you’re underwater. They’re even louder when you resurface.

“Our round eight winners are Harley and Egbert!” Vriska shouts, blowing her whistle loudly.

You and Dave climb out of the pool. “We did a pretty good job dude. Better than I actually anticipated.”

You laugh, sitting at the edge of the pool again and keeping your legs in the water. This is the first time you’ve gotten wet and it feels refreshing especially under the sun. “Yeah, pretty much same. I was kinda sure we’d basically lose on the first round.”

Dave grins. “You did pretty well in the second round though. Didn’t think we’d win that one either with how Vriska was cornering us.”

“Thanks.” He offers you his fist and although you roll your eyes and scoff, you touch knuckles with him while smiling.

The last game to play, the finals, is Jade and John against Roxy and Jake. A lot of your friends were shouting and cheering each side on. The math actually goes on for a little while, longer than all the others with both pairs cutting it close. It looks like either could lose and it was actually pretty entertaining to watch.

At the end though, Roxy and Jake wins the round and are crowned winners. Vriska fetches the stolen items while Terezi throws on leis at the two, her aim completely off. Roxy and Jake pick it up though and put it on, never telling the blind girl that she didn’t toss it their way at all.

And because it’s Roxy and Jake, they chose to give the items back to its rightful owners.

Eridan got his beloved blue scarf back. Feferi received a pretty shell she picked up from Anakena beach all the way back in Easter Island. Roxy herself got her favourite cat shirt back and Jake got back a bright green tie gifted to him by Jade a long time ago, something he brought along on the trip in case something that needs him to be formal happens.

Jade got her collection of little dolls from Angelmó back and John has his weird fake glasses and mustache thing back. Kanaya received her favourite shade of lipstick and Rose got her knitting needles back. Equius got his special towel with an embroidered message from Nepeta back. Nepeta got her favourite kitten ears tuque back and Aradia has her rose hairpin from the beauty pageant back. Sollux was given a USB, containing what is something you’d never want to find out.

Dirk got his hair gel back, and Jane has her special betty crocker spoon given back to her. Gamzee receives his favourite faygo flavour bottle back and Tavros his deck of fiduspawn cards back. Dave received the battery charger for his camera back and you were given your books back.

The rest of you left your things at a nearby dry place while the so-called pool party Terezi and Vriska threw continues. The rest of your friends play games and generally splash around the pool the whole day. At some point, there was a big game of zombie tag that included all of you, jumping and running around the pool and the water park with a bunch of cool designs spewing water out of them. At one point, John comes out with a bunch of water guns and the chase just got even more intense with all of you shooting water at each other as much as you can.

The party basically lasted the whole day and your problems were completely forgotten. All you did that day was have fun with your friends and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Pissing off other passengers and staff members while you had fun and be generally rowdy teenagers was just a bonus.

As the sun was setting, your group finally takes a break, drinking refreshments and eating snacks all around the deck chairs and the bar counter with its stool. Dave gets you to try out a strawberry milkshake, despite all of your protests.

You’d never admit how much you enjoyed it though.

The party slowly winds down and you all showered and got changed out of your wet clothes and swimsuits. Afterwards, you all have dinner together and you have strong feelings of friendship and companionship with these idiots. Maybe even consider them your own little-extended family. They made you feel loved and appreciated when you felt lonely and distraught. You love this bunch of idiots. These are you bunch of idiots.

And you’re really glad you met all of them.


	24. Take Me Laser Tagging And Then Push Me Into A Corner And Kiss Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 34 - Port Stanley, Falkland Islands  
> Day 35 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright bois, we're nearing the part where they finally f i n a l l y get together. For now, here's another one of my favourite chapters, wholesome and also a cliche I haven'tseen written before yet.

The ship arrives at Port Stanley at eight and Roxy wakes you at approximately that time. You leave the ship at nine though, but she and the chaperones assure you that you should have enough time to see the parts you really would like to see.

Per routine, your chaperones guide you to your first destination at Gypsy Cove. A pretty sight in the morning light, with waves crashing by the small strip of sand in a curved half moon shape. The air was fresh, ruffling your hair lightly and smelt of sea salt like you would expect it to be. There was a small oblong plaque that told you a little about the place and the various wildlife that surrounds the place. Your group got to see a couple more Magellanic penguins. 

Your group walks along the beaten path to the Ordnance point and come across an old naval gun from WW2. Eridan took particular joy in posing around it.

While you stayed there for a little while, you saw other wildlife like different species of birds and ducks along the way. You probably don’t spend any more than an hour around the place (honestly it’s probably a little less than an hour) since there’s not much to do aside from looking at the gorgeous view with its rocks and the sprawling ocean in front of you.

The next place you went to is a bit more somber than usual. It’s in Mount Longdon and Eridan is actually quite knowledgeable about what happened around the place and the battles fought around it. There are a few crosses along the way and your group is actually surprisingly pretty great at paying respects to the soldiers that once stood here.

Eridan tells your group step by step on what happened in Mount Longdon (you have no idea how he keeps so much military knowledge from all over the place in his head). It was interesting to hear and your friends took a couple of pictures of the place before your moving again.

The next was at Cape Pembroke with an old abandoned black and white lighthouse. Another great view to see but again, not much to do around the place. Your friends take photos of the place and Dave is too busy with his own camera to make much conversation with you. Which you are completely fine with, this happens a couple of times in your ventures as tourists.

You didn’t stay there long, once again, and you’re off to see the next place again.

Volunteer point is the next on the map and you spend quite a little bit more time there.

There’s an old ranger station nearby but the place is basically sprawling with penguins, a different type this time. King penguins are the ones that make up most of the place but there were a few Magellanic penguins along with Gentoos. 

Your group, especially the girls, definitely took interest in the creatures. At some point, you notice Dave snapping a picture of you while dozens of the penguins took interest in you and basically crowded around you. The same can be pretty much said for the others in your group as well.

“You’ve found your actual family, Vantas.” He teases you, laughter in his voice.

“Still the shittiest insult I’ve ever heard from you. No matter how much you try it’s just never going to work, Strider. It’s like watching you shove a star shape into what is clearly a hole meant for a circle. You look and sound stupid.” You deadpan but he keeps taking photos of you. And for once… You actually don’t mind it? You’ve gotten used to the camera attention and you’re not worrying so much about how you look in them anymore. You know Dave takes the best pictures of you.

Eventually, though, your group has to go and have lunch. You do your usual routines and then your group is off for the afternoon again.

Next, you check out the Falkland Islands Museum. You probably spend the most time here since you’re able to just leisurely look around the museum without worrying too much about time.

There were great information about the war that happened in nineteen eighty-two in the Falkland Islands and some pretty cool exhibits. Once again, Eridan is delighted by the place with its military history.

Your group split up into groups again to check out the place by themselves. You look around the place with Strider, being insensitive little douchebags by making fun of some of the things displayed. But most of it had genuinely been interesting, and for once, hanging out with Strider doesn’t send you into a freak out full of frustration. You just enjoy his company as a friend and the usual chats the two of you have.

You probably spend almost all afternoon there, really looking at each exhibit thoroughly since you’re actually able to this time.

When your group meets back up at the front of the museum, your tour continues to the last place in Falkland.

You visit the Christ Church Cathedral, the biggest church there is in the Falkland Islands. You spend the last hours you have there, looking at the architecture and taking pictures around the place. And since it’s on the same grounds, you also visit the Whalebone Arch. It’s an arch. Made out of whalebone.

You take some pictures there before ending the day by going through the souvenir shops and getting some mementos of the place.

And that concludes your day around Falkland. One of your more chill tours around where you felt relaxed and not pressed for time because of when the cruise ship leaves.

And your day specifically ends with another picture up on Dave’s instagram page. As you expected, it’s the one of you with the penguins. He caught you mid eyeroll in exasperation in this one, but your smile says otherwise. The photo had a greyish tint to it, the skies behind you not it’s usual vibrant blue but a dulled version of it. It works for the photo overall though.

If you don’t think about it too hard, you enjoy the photo in its entirety. You don’t think about secret meanings or vague signals that may or may not be there. You sleep feeling warmth in your chest this time around.

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

It’s another day at sea and you thought you’d just be spending it reading books with Strider again. Just another lazy day.

But at twelve noon, Roxy comes to pick you up and tells you that there’s somewhere important you need to be. She also specifies for the both of you to change into something black or at least something dark. She herself was clad in a black t-shirt and black leggings with a neon pink line running on the side. You and Dave shrugged and did as you were instructed.

Turns out, the place she was taking you was to the in cruise laser tag establishment. You vaguely remember entering its lobby once looking for shitty pirate hats with Dave. God, it already feels like it’s been so long since that happened.

The rest of your group slowly pours into the lobby, all wearing varying dark shades of various colours, and they’re all excited to finally be doing laser tag as a whole group. Roxy ecstatically tells you that you’ll be playing a bunch of matches all afternoon. Your group lets out a whoop. You yourself are actually pretty hyped for this.

Each match lasts to about thirty minutes each so you’ve got plenty of matches ahead of you.

The first thing you do is have the staff of the place tell you the rules. No running, it’s a pretty tight space with lots of hiding spots for shooting and taking cover. No climbing or jumping around the props set up for hiding covers either. No shoving or pushing. Keep two hands on the phaser (the gun). And no covering the sensors that are supposed to count whether you’ve been hit or not.

Then you’re led into a rectangular room, completely dark with only the vests, the phasers, and the neon blue lights lighting up the place. The staff guy tells you to pick a colour, five people in every four colours. Each of the vests glows in the colour of the team they belong to.

Dirk takes red. Jake takes green. Jane takes blue. And Roxy takes purple.

And then you’re all split up into groups until you’re all evenly matched.

In Dirk’s team for the first match is John, Feferi, Equius, and Nepeta.

In Jake’s team for the first match is Tavros, Jade, Kanaya, and you.

In Jane’s team for the first match is Rose, Gamzee, Eridan, and Terezi.

In Roxy’s team for the first match is Dave, Vriska, Sollux and Aradia.

Before you enter the arena though, you’re informed that at the top corner of all four sides in the room is a floating spaceship that glows in the corresponding colour of each team. Hitting it grants twenty points each time it’s hit while hitting a player grants the team ten points. At the end of the session, the team with the most points wins but the person who’s got the most kills is also featured.

Then you’re let into the laser tag space, two archways at each corner of the room to spread everyone out.

When the [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckr6KyZoS58) starts, the match begins.

The whole arena was dimly lit by wire like glow in the dark lights surrounding the place. It’s on the walls and around the tall hiding places at the center of the arena. There are stairs that lead around the room with the railings being lit up by the same wire like lights. The whole thing has a very Tron like aesthetic.

The phasers have a nice guide light at the tops to help you aim, and it’s in the colour of the team you belong in.

Before long, you hear the sounds of a laser-like pulse noise- the sounds the vest makes when you’ve been hit. You also see the guide lights moving all around the walls and the ceiling in an erratic strobe-like fashion.

You’re just turning around corners and trying to find  _ someone _ in this maze-like structure of the place. You hear footsteps and duck behind a wall. You see the flashing of guide lights where you were just standing, and quietly, you wait for whoever it is to come closer-

You aim your gun at a purple vest and it lights up in pulsing like white light, making the noise it does when you're hit. A faint voice says ‘you’ve been hit’. The person turns to face you and you find that it’s Sollux. You burst into giggles at him trying to aim at you but it won’t because he’s currently dead until a few seconds pass and his vest lights up again indicating that he’s active again.

By then, you’re long gone, weaving along the walls. At some point, you come across Eridan and Terezi, seemingly going on a hunting party and you’re hit for the first time, that same mechanical male’s voice repeating ‘you’ve been hit!’ You get out of there before your vest comes back to life and they take aim on you again.

You get hit multiple times out of nowhere when no one is around you and you realize that Roxy is perched at one of the stairs with a window like cover, basically sniper shooting people she comes across that isn’t in her group.

You run into Jade at that same moment, her vest lighting up white to indicate that she’s just been hit. She nods towards Roxy before moving her head to indicate going after her. You nod and both of you split up to climb the stairs on the opposite side of each other.

The two of get near the strip of the hallway that Roxy is in, but anticipating your arrival, she pops out of her hiding spot and aims for Jade, completely unaware there’s two of you. A pulse noise happens in quick succession and Roxy hits Jade and you hit Roxy from behind. You hear Jade shout a “Fuck yeah!” and the two of you high five each other as you pass by one another while Roxy tries to escape before her vest comes back to life and gets hit by Jade, whose vest will come to life just seconds before hers does.

You’re a little clunky with aiming and you only hit a few people but it’s nothing compared to the many times you’ve been hit. But you’re having a lot of damn fun running around in the darkness and trying to shoot the other person before they shoot you.

The first match seemingly ends way too fast, but you’re smiling because there’s gonna be another session afterwards.

Everyone leaves the laser tag space and the staff guy guides you out back to the lobby where a projector shows the stats on the wall.

Purple team won by an overwhelming amount of points, the blue team behind while your team lands solidly on the third, just barely winning against red team. Roxy, Dave, Vriska, Sollux and Aradia all high five each other.

The highest kill count goes to Roxy with twenty-nine hits and you’re not surprised with how she’s been sniping everyone half of the game before you and Jade hit her. The second best shooter goes to Jade though, with her hitting twenty-one people in that particular session. The third best shot is Jake with nineteen hits.

Your group waits around in the lobby for a little while as the vests recalibrate for another game.

Dave sits by you. “Seven hits. Not bad.”

You scoff and shove him away from you. “Like you’re one to talk. Eight hits, just one point above mine.”

He laughs and the two of you chat for a little while before the arena is ready again for another match.

Same colours as before, Dirk, Jane, Jake, and Roxy had kind of taken the title as team leader of each colour.

Dirk’s team for the second match is Jade, Dave, Kanaya, and Tavros.

Jake’s team for the second match is Eridan, Gamzee, Nepeta, and Sollux.

Jane’s team for the second match is Equius, John, Aradia, and Vriska.

Roxy’s team for the second match is you, Terezi, Rose and Feferi.

Awkward, you ended up being with all the girls. But Roxy had told you that you’re on the winning team and pinches your cheek while calling you ‘Karkitten’. You don’t feel like a winner either way.

The staff repeats the same rules again, but he goes through it quicker than before. You’re let into the arena once again and the game begins all over again.

You feel a little more accustomed to your phaser and you think you did a pretty good job compared to last time. You’ve gotten better at hiding and at some point, You and Rose actually team up and move around the place together, looking out for each other's backs.

By the end of the match, the green team gets the place as the winner this time around. Your team gets second and red team takes third. The best shot of that round is once again Roxy with twenty-five kills, the second being Jake with twenty kills, and the third is Vriska with eighteen kills. You didn’t do too bad, you hit twelve people during the whole game. You rub it in Dave’s face when he’s only got ten.

The third game rolls around.

Dirk’s team for the third match is you, Dave, Nepeta, and John.

Jake’s team for the third match is Rose, Kanaya, Vriska, and Gamzee.

Jane’s team for the third match is Equius, Sollux, Tavros, and Terezi.

Roxy’s team for the third match is Jade, Eridan, Feferi, and Aradia.

Poor Eridan. He’s the one in a group of girls.

By this time, the staff guy recites the rules word for word without elaborating any further and he easily lets you into the laser tagging space.

You’d like to think you’ve improved with each game. This time though, instead of going hunting for people, you manage to sneak into the corners of the room, shooting the spaceships as you moved down the wall. When you get to the purple one, you run into Dave who has the same idea of taking advantage of the spaceships.

The two of you take shifts, one person shooting the spaceships while the other scans the area for people and either shooting them or luring them away from the corners.

Your group ends up winning the whole fucking round purely because you and Dave abused the fuck out of the spaceships everyone else seems to have forgotten. Sure, you only got like four kills, but you’d like to think that you were the real MVP of the group that time.

The best shot that game ends up being Jade with thirty kills, the second being Eridan with twenty-six kills and the third was Jake with twenty-five kills. Jade’s group comes second to your own, with Jake’s group in third and Jane landing in last.

You play a few more games and the next time you check the clock, it’s four in the afternoon. You’re pretty fucking tired out from all that running and it seems so is everyone else, so Roxy calls this one the last game of the day.

Dirk’s team for the last match is Rose, Terezi, Vriska and Feferi.

Jake’s team for the last match is Dave, Eridan, Kanaya, and Nepeta.

Jane’s team for the last match is Jade, you, Gamzee, and Aradia.

Roxy’s team for the last match is Equius, Sollux, Tavros, and John.

At this point, the staff guy is just there to make sure you’re all secure in your vests and lets you in without repeating the rules. He just says “you know the rules" as he lets you into the arena. Roxy fist bumps him and says “hell yeah we do.”

Ever since you abused the spaceships at the third game, each team had devised similar tactics, leaving one or two people to defend the ‘base’ while the rest of the group went out hunting for other players. You were never able to replicate what you did that third game. But you are proud that you’re the reason they’re finally paying attention to the spaceships and actually making an effort to protect it.

By this game, you think you’ve gotten really good with aiming and shooting. At one of the games, you actually reached third place for most kills with twenty hits. That’s still your best score out of the whole day.

You’re prowling along the maze-like structure this time, having gotten a feel for the place and almost knowing where everything is. You catch a few people running past between the walls and you hit a couple of them.

You turn a corner and come face to face with Dave. You aim your phaser but the fucker is quick to close the distance between you two and push your hands up so that you miss. “What the fuck-"

Your sentence is cut short when this movement pushes you up against a wall with Dave holding your wrists above your head with one hand to keep you from shooting him. You know you could easily overpower him and get your hands away from his grip, but you’re frozen in place.

The fucker was actually smart enough to take off his shades so he can actually see in the dark. But that just means his eyes are majorly distracting to you. Especially with him this close to you.

You can see individual flecks of red in his eyes, entranced with the fact that they’re so red that they almost glow in the dark. You can feel the way his body is pressed up against you even with the vests on, which aren’t as thick as they’d lead you to believe. You can feel his warm breath on your face, lips just inches from your own. You catch yourself staring at them and force your eyes up to meet his own, feeling that familiar burning sensation creeping up your neck, all over your face, and to the tips of your ears. Your heart is beating hard inside your chest.

Then, he smiles at you and your heart may have stopped for a split second before your ears fill with the familiar sounds your vest makes when you’re hit. “You’ve been hit!” the mechanical man’s voice tells you like you didn’t already know that.

And before you know it, he’s pushed himself off of you and he’s disappeared around the corner. While your knees quite literally buckle under you, your face still burning. You can feel your body slightly trembling from that  _ very  _ close encounter, your phaser slipping from your hands.

You hug your knees close to you and bury your face in them, growling loudly in frustration.

You’ve still got it pretty fucking bad for him.


	25. Quite Possibly The Pinnacle Of Teenage Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 36 - Puerto Madryn, Argentina  
> Day 37 - At Sea

Sleeping had been… Hard. Again. Your thoughts kept wandering back to what happened during that last laser tagging match, and your heart starts to beat too fast for you to sleep properly. The adrenaline that runs through you when you remember the closeness between the two of you, the heat of his body against your own after a long exhausting day of playing laser tag, and the way he smiled at you so mischievously like he knows exactly what he’s doing to your heart. They kept you up at night.

Which was bad because Roxy is at your door at seven in the morning, the time when the ship arrives at the port of Puerto Madryn. She and the other three chaperones have another day for you and your group to enjoy fun activities while in Puerto Madryn.

Apparently, there’s a lot to do around the place and not enough time to do it all. But the things you will be doing should still be plenty memorable.

After breakfast, your group heads out of the ship at eight in the morning. Apparently, you’ve got a date with a bunch of sea lions again to wake you all up for the rest of the day.

Your group heads out on a boat early in the morning to Punta Loma with a guide who tells you a bit about the sea lions and their behaviour before you’re let out to have a dip with them. This time though, you get much more time to spend with the little fuckers instead of the mere fifteen minutes you got in Callao, Peru.

This time though, you ask Dave if he wants to go snorkelling with the others while you handle the camera. You tell him you’ve swum with the sea lions before but he hasn’t since he stayed behind on the boat, taking the role of the photographer. And you tell him that the photographer gets to have a break and enjoy the activities once in a while. He gives you that tiny fond little smile of his that just always manages to get your heart skipping a beat.

So, he hands you the camera while he slips on the rented snorkelling gear along with the others and takes a dip in the water. He also entrusts you with his notorious pair of shades, which you safely tucked on the neck of your shirt.

Once again, the curious sea lions were quick to take interest in your boat, swimming up close to see what was happening. There were dozens of them around, some preferring to stay lounging on the island.

But some were definitely playful and were not shy about getting close to the others. You take shots of the group as a whole, and then some individual photos of each of your friends having fun with the sea lions. Gamzee, once again for some unknown reason, attracts a lot the sea lion’s attention, swimming around him and doing all sorts of flips and dives.

Just watching your friends have fun has its merits. You like seeing them enjoy themselves and it’s nice for you to step back once in a while to appreciate your friends.

With all of the fun you’re all having, the forty-five minutes seem to have passed you by in a blink. Soon, you’re all back on the boat with your life vests on, sailing back towards Puerto Madryn. You hand Dave back his camera along with his shades. You see him smile in a way that reaches his eyes and makes them twinkle before slipping on the opaque black aviators again.

Your group gets changed into fresh clothing once you made it back to land and your chaperones guide you to another place to ride a different boat. But this time, you’re going dolphin watching.

The tour lasts about an hour with the tour guide, a nice short girl named Maria, tells you all about the dolphins as you cruised near where they usually appear. And sure enough, appear they do.

The agile dolphins swimming by the boat are coloured black and white and your tour guide informs you that they’re nicknamed ‘panda dolphins’ for their coloration. The actual name of the dolphins were Commerson’s dolphins.

The tour guide gives you heaps of information about them as the dolphins swim around and beside the boat while you all take photos. Once again, the hour seems to float by easily and before you know it, you’re back at land and it's eleven forty.

Your chaperones make the call of leading you to a restaurant to eat lunch a little early.

Afterwards, you were led to the Municipal Museum of Art. Clearly, this spot is for Dave since you saw him perk up a little at the announcement of where you’ll be going to.

When there, your group once again splits up to tour around the place and you’re left with following Strider around the place.

Just like in Callao, he’s intrigued by the art on the walls, taking pictures of them and especially taking time to study the photography they also offer around the place. There’s sculptures, paintings, engravings, and all sorts of things relating to art.

“You really like this stuff, huh?” You found yourself asking at that point, looking into a glass case that contained a couple of fragile photos of Puerto Madryn.

He hums in confirmation to your question. “I do. It’s just that-" He catches himself just as he was beginning a sentence, getting you to look over at him. He’s taking pictures on the walls and the two of you are the only ones in this specific exhibit. He lowers his camera as you approach to stand by his side to see what’s up.

“Just what?” You inquired, raising an eyebrow.

You see him swallow thickly, watching the movement of his throat. He exhales a breath. “I wasn’t allowed to indulge on shit like this as a kid. I… I was never allowed to express even a small _interest_ in things like this."

You frown. “What do you mean by that?”

He bites his lip, staring straight at the painting with unique brush patterns and colour mixing. “Art was gay. Art was for losers and broke artists on the streets, homeless. So I wasn’t allowed to like it. A stigma that comes with pursuing any career involving art is that you’ll be a starving artist because of how hard it is to make a name for yourself in the industry and actually be successful. And I wasn’t allowed to be a _failure_ of any kind, even though I ended up failing at a lot of things by not becoming who he wanted me to be. Even music was just a big joke to him, creating shit remixes with even shittier names and no real value to them.”

Your eyebrows crawl up in surprise. This is the first time he’s actually talking to you about this mysterious guardian he had as a kid before he moved in with the Lalondes. The person who’s the reason behind those scars of his. You bite your lip, feeling a little guilty for pressing but he was offering you information instead of completely shutting you out so.

“Oh.” Is all you can manage to get out after that. You’re not sure what to say or what to do, so you fiddle with the hem of your shirt, staring at the piece of art in front of you.

He sighs explosively beside you, making you look over at him. He looks flips his shades up and looks back at you, meeting your silver gaze with ruby red ones. You forget to breathe for a moment.

“He… He threw my polaroid camera out the window when he found it. Made a big show out of it too, to make sure I saw him do it. I was eight, and we lived on the very top floor of the apartment. There was no way that the camera was gonna survive.” He tells you, and you can feel your blood run cold, sending a shiver down your spine.

You feel hatred for someone you don’t even know. Because you know how much he loves photography, how much he loved that first camera of his when he was just learning the basics. How can _anyone_ oppress a kid’s interest like that just because it’s perceived to be something that isn’t masculine to do or because it’s a hard career to get into? Fuck, from the sounds of it, he wasn’t even allowed to have it as a casual hobby, especially not take it seriously the way he does now.

You want to touch or hug him, but you know you can’t so you settle for balling your hands into fists.

He plays with a strand of his hair, looking away from you now. “I’m not like… Telling you my sob story because I want you to feel bad for me. I’m well aware that I know more about your emotional hardships in the past while everything I’ve told you so far about me isn’t very substantial in really getting to know a person personally. You told me you didn’t care for knowing my history because it didn’t define who I am right now, standing in front of you. And… That meant a lot to me. But I still want you to know this side of me that isn’t very pretty like the ones I show on the outside. I’ve known for a while now that I can trust you but… It’s still a little hard for me to open up to people, even those I trust, all these years later.”

You find your gaze on the floor, letting everything he just told you to sink in. You nod slowly, unsure what else to do. Saying sorry would just ring empty in this situation and that’s not what he wants to hear from you either. So you say nothing and the two of you continue your tour around the place in silence.

Your group meets back around outside of the art gallery after an hour and a half of touring. It makes you smile when you see the two Strider brothers bonding after Dave approached Dirk to say thank you for specifically picking out this place to tour around for him. It’s cute how Dirk ruffles Dave’s hair like he’s just a ten year old when they’re almost the same in height. It’s even cuter how Dave fusses about his hair as he takes his spot beside you as your group moves onto the next thing.

The next destination on the schedule is another museum, a paleontology museum. It’s in Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum.

Your group breaks apart again to see some fossils around the place. You tag up with Terezi, John, and Vriska for the day since Dave has teamed up with Aradia to talk about paleontology shit you wouldn’t understand. You’re fine though, you get to spend some time with your other friends while Dave gets to spend time with his other friends. The two of you don’t need to constantly be around one another.

Your group tours around the place while John and Terezi goof around with Vriska videotaping it or snapping photos of them. You’re the one who complains about the shit the two of them get up to but secretly enjoy how much fun they’re all having.

With all of the goofing around though, you slow down a lot and you don’t get to see all of what the museum has to offer. You only spend two hours there before your chaperones are frantically trying to gather you up again.

It seems that time got away from them as they strolled through the museum and didn’t notice that it’s already four thirty in the afternoon. Your group makes a quick escape from the museum to catch the ship before it leaves at exactly five.

The end of the day wasn’t exactly as satisfying as all the others, but you still had fun.

There’s yet another instagram update, and it’s one of the photos you took of him in Punta Loma with the sea lions. In this one, he’s smiling at the photo while a sea lion gets up on his personal space, trying to sniff him. It was adorable. He’s tagged you on this one too.

_We switched places again. He said he wanted me to take a break as a photographer and enjoy the day, so I did. @krkt.vantas_

His eyes don’t appear the usual striking red they usually are. More like a brownish red from the way the photo is taken with the sun and all that. Or he could’ve done a little photoshopping and edited it so his would actually look like a normal colour than his scarlet red orbs. After all, he’s still self-conscious about showing them to strangers.

You comment on his photo.

_You make me sound like a nice person. I’m not. This is a one-off thing, shitbag. Don’t expect it to happen again, you pretentious sack of horseshit. @ds_strider_

And he actually fucking replies a few minutes after you commented.

_You know just what to call me to make my heart skip a beat, honey munchkin. <3 @krkt.vantas _

This fucking shitstain.

_Fuck you. @ds_strider_

_When and where, babe? @krkt.vantas_

This fucking shitstain is basically fueling your new found fandom, apparently. Because you’re flooded with a bunch of mentions again just moments after that exchange.

_Omg you guys are too fucking cute together what the actual fuck??? @krkt.vantas @ds_strider_

_Are you completely sure the two of you aren’t dating????? @krkt.vantas @ds_stider_

_#COUPLEGOALS @krkt.vantas @ds_strider_

You groan into your pillow and shut off your phone.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You’re at sea again the next day and the cruise ship is throwing another atrium party. This time though, you planned to lock yourself up in your room with your romance novels and shitty romcoms. No matter what Harley says or does, she’s never getting you off the couch.

And you do just fine for the first couple of hours. You wonder where Dave is and if he’d like to join you an hour into your reading and movie marathon. You’ve got dozens of texts from all of your friends trying to coax you out into partying with them, so you shut off your phone instead.

Hours pass by and when you next check the clock on your phone, you realize it’s already one in the morning. What’s peculiar though is the dozens of missed calls you’ve received. It’s a strange occurrence since none of your friends are big on calling each other, always doing most of the talking over text. The only explanation is something must’ve happened. Again.

Goddamnit.

You check all of your messages but Rose’s seems to be the one that provides the information without all of the freaking out.

Lesbian No.2  
  
I believe we’re going to need your expertise on this one, Karkat.  
  
My extensive knowledge on psychology doesn’t exactly deal with romantic woes or your typical ‘teenage drama’.  
  
Can you come to the top deck lounging area as soon as you can? It’d be highly appreciated, none of us really know what we’re doing or what we’re supposed to do.  
  
  ALRIGHT, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING AND WHY IS EVERYONE FREAKING OUT?  
  
  NONE OF THEM CAN GIVE ME A STRAIGHT FUCKING ANSWER IT SEEMS.  
  
We’re having an issue we’ve never had to deal with before as a friend group.  
  
As I stated, it involves romantic woes. Can you just come up to top deck already?  
  
 FINE. I'M ON MY WAY THERE.  
  
 TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED ON MY WAY THERE THOUGH, I CAN TEXT AND WALK AT THE SAME TIME.  
  
 JUST SO I KNOW WHAT WE’RE DEALING WITH.  
  
Aradia found Sollux cheating on her with Feferi in his cabin room just a little while ago.  
  
 JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.  
  
I know. Clearly the pinnacle of teenage drama. We could make a sitcom out of our misadventures during this whole cruise.  
  
 ALRIGHT I’M ALMOST THERE. GIVE ME THE DETAILS WHEN I GET THERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Your name is Aradia Megido and you enjoy doing a variety of things. You like paleontology, adventures, Indiana Jones movies, and plenty of outdoor activities. But you’re also one for parties.

And this atrium party is something you can totally define as ‘the bomb’. Strobe lights are everywhere and there’s a lot of dancing and loud music. You’re hanging out with your usual girls for the night, having bribed the bartender to try out a couple of none age-appropriate drinks. You make sure you don’t drink enough to get more than tipsy though. Rose was very strict about that.

It’s getting late into the night, but the party is still raging on pretty hard. You haven’t seen your boyfriend since you came into the atrium and separated ways to hang out with your friends. The two of you are together, but that doesn’t mean you have to be together all the time.

“I’m gonna go find Sollux!” You tell your friends (more like shout. It’s so fucking loud around here), and they all nod in acknowledgement, grabbing your drink for you and shooing you away. You think you hear Vriska about you getting some action for the night. You laughed.

And so, you weaved through the crowd in the dim lights of the place, looking for the guys Sollux usually hangs around. Equius tells you that he saw him at the beginning of tonight but hasn’t seen him since. You text Karkat if he’s seen Sollux or if he’s told him where he is or is going, but receive no reply from him. Dave tells you that the two of them had a friendly debate about electronica and techno music where Sollux cussed him out as a ‘hipster wannabe DJ’. He also tells you that he was lisping more than usual and seemed a bit tipsy. Roxy tells you that she ran into Sollux and Feferi dancing on the dance floor at some point. Gamzee tells you to seek out Eridan since they apparently had ‘a motherfuckin good time by the bar counters’. Eridan tells you that he and Sollux actually had a bit of a drinking competition earlier that night after some of their usual antagonizing banter. He tells you that Feferi took him away when he seemed more than tipsy and he says he thinks they’re on the dance floor.

So you weave through the dance floor after convincing a reluctant Eridan to search with you. You’re not too worried if Sollux is in a drunken state at the moment. If he’s with Feferi, she’ll surely keep him out of trouble.

After an hour of searching on the dance floor though, you find no signs of the two. Eridan tells you that Feferi might’ve brought Sollux back to his cabin if his intoxicated state was worse than he anticipated. You thank him and leave the atrium to walk back towards the cabins.

He keeps his door unlocked for you most of the time, but when you get there, you find that it’s locked. You’re not worried though, he gave you a spare key into his room so you can access whenever you want. He tells you that your presence is always a pleasant surprise, even if he’s deep into coding at the moment. He can be really sweet sometimes.

“Sollux? I heard you were-"

You stop dead in your tracks when you hear Feferi’s high pitched squeal of surprise. Your boyfriend is in his bed with one of your best, most trusted friend, on his lap, the back of her dress unzipped and halfway off her body.

Feferi is staring at you with wide-eyed horror while Sollux seems to be too out of it to even properly register you yet.

When you’ve regained your ability to move after the shock-inducing sight, you’re quick to slam the door shut with you on the other side. You cover your mouth and slide to the floor as your knees quite literally give out on you.

You’re Aradia Megido and you just caught your boyfriend and your best friend cheating on you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm giving everyone some scenes featuring each one of them as much as I can so no one is really left out XD Mostly a filler chapter with davekat happening in the background.
> 
> We're very close tho guys. I'm 95% done with the fic. Just writing the final chapter and epilogue.


	26. We're All A Little Bad When It Comes To Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 37 - At Sea  
> Day 38 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter ahead guys. Another few chapters in the future will be long too so there's that to look forward to.
> 
> As usual, I'm thankful for all of the comments and kudos! Keep em coming because I'm a degenerate that feeds off of the validation of others :')

This whole situation is a fucking shitfest.

That’s what this is.

A fucking shitfest of your typical teenage emotional baggage during high school. God, Rose was so right about turning your trip into a sitcom. This is fucking ridiculous.

When arrived there, most of your friends had come out to see what happened as well. Meaning basically everyone was there. Except for Captor and Peixes. God knows where they are right now.

But in the meantime, your friends are dead set on consoling Aradia.

Fuck, you expected this to happen at some point. You expected that Feferi might make a move on an already taken guy, said guy being one of your best friends since grade school. But you didn’t think anything would come from that attempt. You didn’t think Captor would ever cheat on Aradia, a girl he’s clearly been in love with for almost two years now. You have a feeling there’s more to this than what it seems though. Because you know Sollux. And Sollux would never intentionally hurt Aradia of all people.

Rose walks you through what Aradia was able to get out so far. After finding out the ultimate betrayal from a friend, Aradia was quick to contact her other most trusted friend. She contacts Vriska.

Although the two have had their issues over the past years, they’re one of the few who has known each other since childhood. Aradia grew up beside Vriska and Terezi before you met all of your other friends in middle and high school. It’s just like how John has known Dave since they met at club penguin when they were just little shits. It’s like how you’ve known Gamzee since the two of you were two little germs and he was your quirky and odd neighbour. Although both had become distant and hung out with a different crowd in the same friend group, Aradia still trusted Vriska the most.

In turn, Vriska calls up Kanaya and Kanaya was able to hold her off from going and beating Sollux’s already drunken ass or bitch slapping the fuck out of Feferi. God, this whole thing is gonna make a huge ripple effect on all of your friends. And most of them are relying on you, self-proclaimed love expert, to fix this shitfest. This is the biggest fucking task you’ve had to take on since John’s disastrous break up with Vriska and his consequent terrible decision to fuck around with Tavros, another one of Vriska’s ex. This is going down in the history as the biggest fuck up of your friend group catastrophes.

From there, Kanaya tells Rose and the three of them go to console Aradia. Terezi hears about the news as well, spreads it to Nepeta who basically tells Equius and Eridan. Eridan then freaks the fuck out to the closest person to him at the time, which happens to be Dave and Dave tells Jade who passed it onto John and from John, it gets to Tavros and Gamzee. And now everyone is practically there.

Speaking of which, you don’t see Eridan around either. You guess he’s gone out to find Feferi and see if she’s okay. You’re glad at least someone bothered to check on the other two, even if they’re kind of the antagonists at the moment since you’re all hearing Aradia’s perspective on the whole thing.

Rose makes some space for you to talk to Aradia personally, while she quietly guides the rest of the group out. Before she leaves, you ask her to pick out the people who would be the least pissed at Feferi and Sollux so she can check on them too, wherever the fuck they are. She assures you that she’ll get it done.

So now, you’re sitting at the pretty empty indoor lounge at the top deck with Aradia curled up into a ball beside you. You awkwardly rub the back of your neck while you bring your other hand to pat her back. “How’re you feeling?”

Aradia sniffles, using her shirt to wipe away at her nose. “Terrible.” She mutters quietly.

The two of you sit in silence for a bit while you brainstormed on how to approach the situation. Aradia elaborates though, thankfully. “I know I should feel angry, at Sollux, at Feferi, but… I don’t? I just… I just feel really bad. Terrible. Like my whole chest literally just got scooped out.” She continues, and you can see new tears forming her on her eyes.

“You said Sollux was pretty drunk already, right?” You ask, and she nods. “I don’t know how much of the blame is on Feferi’s and how much of it is on Sollux. But I think you should at least try to talk to both of them.”

She sniffles, her brows furrowing into a frown. “I don’t want to see either of them. I mean, I know Sollux was drunk so I’m not… I’m not angry at him. But I just. I feel like Feferi found him drunk and decided to take advantage of that. I’m not blind, Karkat, I’ve seen the way she looks at him. I just trusted her to never to act on those instincts though. I trusted her not to do something like this, something this selfish.”

“Okay, I can’t fight you on that one. It was pretty obvious how Feferi felt about Sollux for a while now. But have you considered what was it like on Feferi’s end? I’m not saying that she’s justified for doing such a shitty decision as this one- and trust me, this is probably the shittiest decision I’ve ever seen and that includes my own dumb fuck ups. But what I am saying is to remember that she’s human too. She’s your friend. I’m sure she hasn’t been scheming all this time just to do this. This isn’t some plan she’s been planning all along and that your friendship meant nothing to her, just a means to get close to Sollux. She’s been your friend for far longer than she’s liked Sollux. Keep that in mind.”

Aradia pouts, pulling her legs closer to her. She clearly doesn’t like what she’s hearing from you but you know she’s only annoyed because she knows you’re right. “As much as you want to hate Feferi and put all the blame on her, you should also remember that she probably didn’t do it to purposefully harm you. Love makes us all so stupid as to regress to literal children at a playpark, making stupid decisions like shoving sand in your mouth for a dare. We’re all a little bad when it comes to love.”

Aradia bites her lip. “It doesn’t stop me from being mad at her.” She stubbornly says. You sigh and lean back into the couch.

“I’m not asking you to immediately forgive her. I’m just asking you to understand the circumstances she was in to make the stupid choice that she did. If you won’t talk to her, at least give it some more thought before outright throwing her out as a friend. I don’t want to create sides between our friends on who they should support. I don’t this of all things to tear our friends apart.”

She glances out the window, watching the full moonshine in the dark skies. “Alright. Alright, I get what you’re saying. I don’t want it to be the reason we all stop being friends either. I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

You smile lightly to yourself. “Thank you, Megido. I know this hurts but you can’t make a selfish decision just like Feferi did, out of pure spite. Fuck, that’s a lot coming from me of all people. Literally, the person who would do shit just to prove people wrong out of pure spite.”

Aradia chuckles, sniffling again. “Honestly, I should be thanking you for talking to me, Karkat. I... “ She falls silent, biting her lip. “I’m really glad to have you as a friend, someone who really cares a lot about his friends. I mean, you’re even making an effort to fix this clusterfuck of a situation even when you don’t have to. In another lifetime, I wouldn’t mind dating you.”

“Listen, Aradia, you know I like you as a friend and all but-" You say in a mock-sincere tone, much like how she did just a few days ago. She laughs and flicks you on the forehead.

“Don’t make fun of me! I’m actually trying to be all heartfelt and sincere here.” She giggles, still sniffling just a bit. You grin and flick her on the forehead back.

“Remember who you’re talking to, Megido. I’m gonna use every opportunity to get back at you for siding with the other fucks when we were talking about crushes.”

She laughs, resting her chin on her knees. “What do you plan to do about Sollux, then?” You ask a bit bluntly. Aradia shrugs.

“I’m not sure. I mean… I still love him and all. Of course, I do, it wouldn’t hurt this much if I didn’t. But…” She trails off and you quirk an eyebrow at her.

“Trust issues?”

“Trust issues.” She nods. “Things like this can really shake up a relationship. It’s the first time I’ve ever even considered of losing him to anybody else. I’ve always been confident in what we had, but… I can’t help but feel insecure now, you know?”

You pat her back, nodding. “Yeah, I get it. Finding who you thought was your best friend trying to get it on with your long-term serious boyfriend is harsh. Literally out of a teen drama too.”

“I have no idea how you can be so knowledgeable about relationships when you’re not even in one.” She chuckles and you flick her on the forehead again.

“Remind me to never help you with whatever future romantic problems you may have in the future.”

“Psh. Like you can resist being able to put your relationship knowledge to good use.” You flick her again and she just snorts at you.

“Seriously though, do you plan on forgiving either of them?” You ask, sitting up straighter.

She shrugs again. “I know I will. In the future, maybe. But not anytime soon. I think… I think a break would be nice for all of us right now. An emotional vacation.”

“Fuck, that sounds nice. An emotional vacation? Shit, I’d do anything just to get a week of that.”

Aradia raises an eyebrow at you. “What has your trip on the ship been an emotional rollercoaster? You look pretty chill for someone who’s apparently going through serious internal emotional turmoil.”

You shrug. “I’m just private when it comes to things about my life, I guess. I won’t say it unless you ask me directly.”

She turns to face you, curiosity on her face now. “Well then. Let me ask you directly. What’s happening between you and Dave? Clearly, something is happening, we’re not blind, Karkat. You may not know this but you’ve been pretty popular gossip among our friends.” She tells you, an amused expression on her face.

You just screw up your face in confusion. “Wait, are you fucking tell me that our friends have literally been talking about me and Strider behind our backs?!”

She laughs at your reaction and proceeds to tell you the bets happening in the background. About what your inherent relationship is with Strider, whether you’ll get together and when. It makes your cheeks burn in embarrassment.

Your friends are literal demons. You’re sure of it.

You and Aradia chat for a little while longer, the topic not necessarily staying on the current issues she’s facing. It’s nice to have a private chat with her, you realize it’s been a while since you properly hung out with her or just talked.

Eventually, though, you bid her goodbye and ask her to seriously think about what you’ve just told her. She tells you that she will and thanks you again. You reach your bed at three in the fucking morning.

You check up on Rose and she tells you that She, Kanaya, Dave and Jade went to check on Sollux and Feferi. She tells you that Sollux has fallen asleep, seemingly clueless about the entire thing that just went down while Feferi has locked herself up in her room. She asks you to talk to both of them sometime tomorrow morning.

Christ, you’ve got so much to fucking do to fix this shit up. Goddamnit. Why did you appoint yourself as literally everyone’s relationship guide? Your friends have just as many issues with love as much as they do with emotional baggage from shitty upbringings. You and Rose are overworked with everyone’s bullshit.

Speaking of which, you’ll make sure to spend some time with her someday so both of you can bitch about it. Things you do for your friends.

Just god fucking damn it.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Thank god Rose alerted your chaperones about what fucking happened yesterday. Roxy would naturally wake your group up either an hour before the ship stops to port or right after it lands to port. But with the knowledge that your whole group is basically sleep deprived from last night, Roxy took pity upon you and decided to wake you up at ten. She did say that you’ll be touring late into the night though since the ship stays at Buenos Aires until tomorrow at five in the afternoon.

You go for breakfast with the group and you can tell that the recent events have really impacted the mood. It isn’t as cheery as it usually would, which sucks because Buenos Aires is one of the bigger attractions you’ll stop at during the cruise.

When you’re alerted that Feferi plans on staying behind for today, you literally got out of your seat right in the middle of breakfast to stomp your way to her door. You’re going to need her to be around so you can have a proper chat with both her and Sollux during the day as you tour around the place. You’re not taking her ‘I’m feeling sick’ bullshit, you plan on getting this shit straightened out as fast as you’re physically able to.

And so, you slammed on her door, telling her to open until she finally did. Feferi looked like shit, a strange sight to behold since she’s always been one of the ones to put effort into the way she dresses and looks. So seeing her with frizzy bed hair, rumpled pyjamas and bloodshot eyes is a surprise.

You barge into her room and get her to wash her face, brush her teeth and comb through her hair. You even pick out a fucking dress for her to wear since she didn’t feel like getting up herself and dressing herself up.

When she steps out from the bathroom, you nod, satisfied with how she looks. She still looks miserable though.

“I don’t want to go because nobody is gonna want me there anyway.” She tells you, sniffling and rubbing her eyes.

“Do you think I give a shit about that? I need to talk to you and Captor throughout the day and that means you need to be there for the day. Plus, what you’re saying is bullshit. Of course, we’d want you to be there. Sure, Aradia might avoid you or Vriska might glare at you, but really, is there anyone Vriska doesn’t fucking glare at? The rest of our friends are just as worried about you as they are with Aradia and Sollux, alright? So get your shit together, okay? I’m actually here to help your sorry asses and I’d like my efforts to be acknowledged, appreciated, and thanked.”

She sniffles again and looks up at you from her perch on the bed before nodding slowly. “Alright. I’ll come with you.” She sighs and stands up, slipping on some comfortable shoes before leaving her cabin with you.

You bring Feferi to the breakfast lounge where she sits with Eridan who’s saved a spot for her. The morning was tense but you tried to ignore it most of the time, continuing on with your normal activities. Even the tension seems to be getting to Dave, who keeps talking your ear off all during breakfast.

Once you’re done, your chaperones move to get you guys going on to your first destination.

The first stop was at La Recoleta Cemetery, a resting place for the rich and famous. It’s a maze-like place and one could get easily lost so your chaperones made sure to have a map of the place as you toured around. Since it mostly just involved walking around and taking pictures of the fancy and expensive mausoleums fitted so close to each other, you took the time to walk side by side with Sollux for a chat. He seems to be purposefully lagging behind the group, glancing at Aradia who’s surrounded herself with the other girls like Nepeta, Vriska, and Jade. It’s kind of a pitiful sight, actually.

You walk beside him in moderate silence for a little bit before finally voicing your thoughts. “So, can I ask what you remember of last night?”

Sollux visibly cringes at you bringing up the subject. “Not much, actually.” He mutters curtly, shoulders tensed. You sighed.

“Can you just talk to me, Sol? I know you probably don’t even want to relive the nightmare that was last night, but it’s not gonna magically go away or come undone. Talk to me, it’ll at least make you feel better.”

He worries his lip, glancing at you from the corner of his eyes. “I’m being truthful here, KK. I literally do not remember a lot of last night. I remember drinking too much than I can handle against Eridan, I remember dancing with Feferi, I remember running into Roxy at some point during that dance, but everything got kinda fuzzy and dark after that. Shit, DV had to be the one to break the news to me that I apparently drunkenly cheated on my fucking two-year girlfriend and that’s why she won’t even look me in the eye this morning.”

It’s your turn to cringe. That is a lot to handle in one morning after dealing with what you can imagine was a killer headache from being hungover. Finding you fucked up something so horribly and you can’t even remember it.

“I’m sorry. Really, you’re in the shittiest situation, caught between two girls in the most cliched teen drama plot conflict. Shit, I can’t even imagine what waking up to that news must be like. How much did Dave exactly told you about last night? Because a lot of shit happened last night.”

“I don’t know? He told me that Aradia caught me apparently drunkenly macking on Peixes last night and that was basically it.”

You roll your eyes. Of course, Dave would only give the poor guy the bare minimum to understand his situation. “Yeah, Aradia caught you cheating with Feferi. But I talked with her last night and she’s… She’s not exactly mad at you, just mostly at Feferi. But she does think the two of you could use a break for a little bit.”

He sighs explosively, pulling a hand out of his pocket and running it through his dark hair. “What the fuck am I supposed to do then, KK?”

You bite your lip, staring at your feet as you walked. “You’ll need to give Aradia some time and space. She’ll talk to you when she’s ready.” You tell him. “But your immediate problem right now is dealing with Feferi. She’s made her feelings towards you pretty clear.”

Captor avoids your gaze. “I can’t return her feelings. Especially not when she decided to fuck with my own relationship in the process because of her feelings for me. I know I shouldn’t be mad at her, part of this is my fault for getting drunk off my ass in the first place. But I just can’t return her feelings.”

You nod. You expected as much, you’ll need to get Feferi’s side of the story and be a messenger for these three idiots if they refuse to talk to each other.

“I’ll talk with her and see how she’s feeling about the whole thing. From what I saw this morning, she’s clearly not handling it very well and she’s probably the one that needs the most help out of all three of you. I’ll get back to you after I have a chat with her.” You tell him, patting him on the shoulder consolingly.

“Thanks, KK. For trying to help and shit… I know this is really messy and stuff, but I appreciate you trying to talk to each of us and just being generally understanding and not immediately deciding whose fault is it and who’s in the wrong or placing things into black and white squares. I know it usually is pretty clear on who’s usually blamed when cheating is the topic.”

“You’re all my friends, alright? You may be stupid as a chicken without its fucking head, but you’re all my friends. I know enough about each of you to know that none of you would actually do any harm to each other on purpose. Feelings just… Really sucks balls.”

He chuckles lightly at that, although it sounds a little strained. “Yeah, it really fuckin does. Don’t you just sometimes wish you can just turn off your emotions once in a while? God, that’d make getting over things so much easier.”

You smile lightly. “But maybe getting over things easily isn’t always best. We wouldn’t learn from our mistakes if we can just easily brush them off because we don’t care about the consequences.”

He smiles ruefully at you and sighs once again. “Just… Check if Feferi’s alright, okay? What she did was completely shitty but she doesn’t deserve to be completely antagonized and ostracized from the group.”

You nod. “I will. I don’t want our friend group to fucking fall apart over a stupid common teenage mistake like this one.”

He pats your head, chuckling under his breath. “You’re a good guy, KK.” You shove his hand away from your head and cross your arms, letting out an indignant huff.

You take the time to just spend some more time hanging out with Sollux for the rest of the trip around La Recoleta Cemetery. It’s been a while since the two of you got someone on one bro time with one another and you’d like to make him feel like he’s not being completely isolated from the group because of what happened last night. That you’re still friends. You might have to talk to a few other girls specifically to make sure Feferi can be reintegrated into the group without making it feel like they’re forced to hang out with her but because they still actually do want to be friends with her. You think the only problem will be with Vriska and you’re hoping she won’t be a complete antagonistic close-minded bitch this time. Basically, you hope she’s matured from her fifteen-year-old self. Aradia will take some time, but you can understand why. You’re sure Feferi will understand why too and give her some space until she’s ready to forgive both her and Captor.

No matter. You’re determined to fix this shit because it really ain’t gonna fix itself. And if they’re gonna need some guidance into how to pick back up the pieces, you’ll be there to help. You’re always glad to help.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

After a full hour of touring around the pretty mausoleums at La Recoleta Cemetery, your chaperones take you to another art gallery. This one features more popular art from big names like Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Picasso. And it’s free of charge to go into it!

You know you should probably look around the place with Eridan and Feferi so you can talk to the girl but… You’d really like to see Dave’s reactions to more art pieces around the place now that you know a little more about his history and why he didn’t like you finding out his secret interest in poetry.

So, you team up with him for the next two hours, chatting and talking about the local art pieces around the museum.

Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes has a huge glass dome roof supported by black metal supporters. It had white walls and the entrance to the wide open space had marble black floors. It was pretty and you probably spent quite a bit of time gawking around the place.

Your group splits up to see as much of the place as you can within a span of two hours before you had to leave for the next destination again.

It was cute, getting to see Dave try and hide his excitement about the place as he took lots of photos of the exhibits you were able to visit. You want to hold his hand, but even if you’re allowed to, you know you can’t since he’s busy using them to take pictures. So you just admire him from afar, no matter how much it aches you not to be physically near him all the time.

It was one by the time your chaperones texted you to meet back up at the entrance so you can leave. You tease Dave about his obvious reluctance to leave without seeing everything the place had to offer and he pretends to sulk at you. You just laugh at his attempt at being a petulant child, though you’d never admit how cute he was when he got like that.

Your group was getting pretty peckish around this time so your chaperones got you to have take out burgers from a local fast food place. So you can enjoy more sights without having to stop for food.

Your group was brought over to Plaza Derrego, a pretty park with trees lining the place in a symmetric fashion. While you eat your food sitting at some benches around the place, you watched some local performers dance the tango.

“Have you ever wanted to learn how to dance, Karkat?” Dave asks you, crumpling up his wrapper and throwing it into a trash can like a basketball. It sinks perfectly into the hole.

You’re still just finishing up your own meal. You shrug. “I never gave much of a thought about dancing. I guess it’d be nice? I mean, what about you? What type of dancing would you like to learn if you could?”

He shrugs as well. “I mean. Tango isn’t bad. It’s pretty sexy and intimate type of dancing. Would definitely earn some charm points to whoever you’re trying to impress. Easy excuse to get physically close to someone too.”

You raise an eyebrow at him, smirking. “I think the cruise offers some dance lessons around the place. You could go check it out and see if they offer dance classes for tango.”

He glances your way, putting a hand on his chest dramatically. “Are you asking me out to a dance lesson date? And you’re suggesting _tango lessons of all things_? Be still my beating heart, you’re making me swoon here, Kitkat.”

You blush furiously and swat him on the shoulder. “That’s not-! That’s totally not what I meant and you fucking know it!” He simply laughs at you.

But now that he’s inputted the idea into your mind, you can’t stop thinking about it. Even harder when there’s a pair dancing in front of you, and each move makes you imagine what it would be like if it was you and him-

The memory of his body against yours during that laser tagging session comes to mind. You blow all those thoughts away and crumple up your wrapper a little harsher than necessary.

It’s two when you move onto the next thing in your schedule. This time, your chaperones bring you to Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens.

It’s a picturesque little garden with a prominent red bridge that demands your attention as soon as you see it. There are lots of colourful flowers lining the cobblestone walkway and beautiful rock formations around the small lake. Your group takes a tranquil walk through it and you take this opportunity to have a chat with Feferi.

When you approach Eridan and Feferi, Eridan is quick to take notice of you and makes an excuse to leave Feferi behind since he knows you’ll want to have a one on one talk with her. You watch him catch up next to Sollux- they seem to be friendlier to each other lately- as you begin walking beside the Peixes girl.

Your group has splintered about the place to roam the space freely on their own groups. You greet Feferi and she smiles at you, a bit sadly though. You steer her away from most of your friends and walk with her into a secluded part of the garden.

“How are you holding up so far?” You ask her gently as a start, shoving your hands into your sweater pocket.

She gives you a halfhearted shrug. “I mean… I’m enjoying the sights Buenos Aires has to offer. I’ve just kind of felt off, not hanging out with the rest of the girls. It… Feels hard to approach any of them at the moment. Eridan’s been keeping me company for most of the day though. I realized how much I under appreciated him and his presence beside me all this time. I was used to being a people’s person, being popular and surrounded by my friends that I forgot how much I enjoyed things when it was just the two of us. I guess that’s one good thing to come out of all this.”

Jade and Feferi. The eternal optimists of the group. Always finding something to be happy and hopeful about even at times like this.

“I guess that is a good thing to realize.” You shrug. “How are you feeling about this whole situation we have right now, though?”

“I feel terrible and I hate myself.” She replies easily, playing with the many bright bracelets on her wrists. “I know I fucked up and the rest of our friends probably hate me. I pulled a really bitchy move last night and I regret it a lot now that I’ve had time to really think about my actions.”

You pat her on the shoulder. “Nobody hates you, Fef. Let’s get this first thing straightened out. Yes, what you did was kind of bitchy and two-faced, actually, who am I kidding? It was totally fucking bitchy and two-faced, but that doesn’t make you bitchy and two-faced as a whole. It was an impulsive shit decision but that one thing you did doesn’t get to change you as a whole person. Granted, if you kept doing it, then it’s a different story. But I doubt you will. I talked to both Aradia and Sollux. Yes, they’re both upset with what you did, but they don’t entirely hate you, alright?”

She continues to fidget with her bracelets and the many rings on her fingers. “Are you sure? I wouldn’t blame them if they just wanted to cut me out of their lives entirely. I…” She pauses, reaching a hand up and wiping the corner of her eyes before a tear can even fall. “I just feel so fucking stupid for letting my feelings get in between me and my friendship with Aradia. I hate for letting my jealousy drive me to do those… Things.”

You bite your lip, fiddling with the laced around the neck of your sweater. “Can I ask you to walk through what you did and what your thought process was during that night? So I have all the facts from all three parties involved.”

Feferi sniffled and nods. “I tried getting Sol away from Eridan because he was getting really tipsy. So I brought him to the dance floor and he… He thought I was Aradia? I don’t know why but… But I just went with it? I danced with him and when I brought him back to his cabin, he started really clumsily trying to take my dress off and I-” She bites her lip, looking away. “I kissed him and he kissed and things just went on from there. I never intended for any more than that to happen between us though.”

Ahhhh. So that’s how it happened. Like you suspected, a stupid mistake made at the heat of the moment because it felt right at the time. You hate that it reminds you of the prank kiss at sunset.

“Alright. Thank you Feferi. I’ll talk to the other two and get their opinions again about this.” You tell her, patting her on the shoulder. “Why don’t you try approaching Sollux sometime today and just… Talk to him about the situation and apologize. I’ll talk to Aradia and try to convince her to talk to you so you can at least explain yourself and apologize. I can’t guarantee that she’ll forgive you anytime soon though.

“It’s… Fine. I get it. I know she’s super mad at me for betraying her trust like this. It was just a really bad slip of judgement at the time and I hope she can forgive someday, even if it’s not today.” Feferi mutters to herself, sniffling again.

You talk to Feferi for a little while longer and coax her to try and approach one of the girls and hang out. You tell her to try Kanaya because you know she’ll be accepting of the girl. She’s almost like a mom to all of you. She’s the mom of your group of friends.

You only stayed around the garden for a little longer than that before your chaperones had you moving onto the next thing again. This time, the destination is clearly for Kanaya.

Your group checks out the local fashion district in Palermo since it’s nearby. The stores and vendors featured colourful clothing and accessories native to the place and Kanaya took great interest in the culturally different types of fashion designs different from her own fashion-forward sharp couture. Rose is more than happy to indulge her girlfriend and listen to her rant about fabrics and colours and styles while you’re there.

Your group buys a couple of things, a few colourful bracelets and necklaces with cultural significance. You see Nepeta try and approach Feferi at some point and it makes you smile. Maybe everything will be alright after all.

By four, the sun is slowly beginning to set, so your chaperones decide to make you have a picturesque walk through Puente de la Mujer. It’s a rotating footbridge meant to symbolize a couple dancing the tango.

It’s a nice time to relax and unwind, and although you’d like to spend the time looking out at the sunset with Strider and just talking like you usually do, you approach Aradia to see what she’s been thinking of the whole day.

“Hi, Karkat.” She greets you with a faint smile as she leans against the railing of the bridge, looking out at the sky. “I saw you talk to Sollux and Feferi. I’m guessing you’ve got something to say to me again?”

You lean against the railing beside her, looking out at the horizon. “Yeah. I talked to both of them. But I’m actually here to see if you've thought about what I said last night.”

She makes a humming noise of acknowledgement. “I did. I talked to Rose and Kanaya about it. They had some pretty mature insights about the situation.”

“Really? Care to elaborate?” You raise an eyebrow, glancing at her.

“Kanaya told me to try and be open to forgiveness and not completely reject the idea because of my anger towards Feferi. She says what you basically said, to forgive, even if it isn’t right now. Rose tells me that I can’t avoid Feferi forever and I will have to interact with her again because she refuses to have our friends pick a side on who to hang out with because we can’t hang out together like we usually do. She tells me I have to face the situation sooner or later and talking go Feferi sooner is definitely best.”

It’s your turn to hum in response. “What they’re saying is pretty right. But I think you already knew that without me having to tell you so.”

“I know. And I’ve thought a lot about it. I’ve had time to calm down and not let my emotions taint my decisions and… And I would like to be friends with Feferi again. Maybe not as close as we were before, but enough to at least tolerate each other since we have the same friends.”

“That’s good to hear. I don’t know if this information will do anything, but Feferi told me that Sollux apparently though she was you and she says she just went with it. She says she didn’t plan on anything more kissing happening last night, so I guess there’s your proof that she didn’t have outright malicious intent. Just a momentary lapse of judgement because it felt right at the time.”

Aradia nods, not bothering to look at you. “I’ll talk to Feferi sometime tomorrow. Thanks for helping out and talking to me, Karkat. I might not have come to this conclusion otherwise.”

You shrug. “Happy to help.”

Then the two of you lapse into a comfortable silence.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The day still wasn’t done, though. As Roxy said, she planned to have you guys stay out late trying to see as many things as you can.

At six, you visit the Floralis Genérica, a sculpture made out of steel in the shape of a flower.

With the sun’s last rays reflecting the pretty colours, it was a really good time to visit the tourist attraction. There’s a couple of other tourists around snapping photos of the place. Feferi charms yet another unsuspecting passerby to snap a photo of your group all together with the of the steel art installation in the background.

You spend some time around the place, walking around the park and enjoying the cool air that breezes by as night slowly took over.

Strider walks beside you, showing you the photos he’s taken around the place. You tell them that they’re pretty because they are. After a while though, the two of you just lapse into a comfortable silence.

“You care so much,” Dave states out of nowhere, eyes down on his camera.

“Yeah? And what about it?” You question, a little challenge in your voice. You expect him to make fun of you again.

“It’s admirable." He tells you instead, letting his camera hang around his neck as he shoves his hands into his pockets and tilts his head up to look at the sky. “I really admire that about you.”

“Thanks…?” You’re a bit startled so it comes out as kind of a question.

He chuckles. “You’re a really easy guy to like, Karkat. Despite your perceived sharp edges, you’re really soft.” You hear him mutter quietly. “I like it.” He murmurs afterwards, barely audible. You think you can see a dusting of pink on his cheeks, but that could easily be just the rosy pink lighting of the place as the sun sets.

You don’t know what to say to that, so you don’t say anything. The two of you just continue to quietly walk down the pathway, shoulders barely touching.

Before the day ends though, at seven, Roxy happily announces that you’ll be visiting Teatro Colón to watch an opera for the night. But since there’s a strict formal clothing requirement so your chaperones bring you back to the ship to change before heading out to the place.

And so, your chaperones get you to the theatre where the opera starts at seven thirty and lasts about two and a half hours with intermissions between.

The place was grand with red carpeting and golden embellishments all over the place and shiny smooth marble floors that glittered under all of the lights. Even with your suit on, you feel really under fucking dressed for the place.

Roxy, coming from a family of wealth and fortune, of course, got you all a fucking seat at a private box in one of the greatest places to properly see and hear the opera at. _Fucking rich people_.

So, you spent the night at the theatre, watching an opera. And the opera you’re all watching, in particular, is Phantom of the Opera, with a live orchestra playing underneath the stage.

It’s all very fantastical and of course, because Phantom of the Opera is technically a love story, you’re enraptured at the play. You cried at the end where the Phantom let Christine go and marry another man because he loved her despite her not being able to love him back in the way he’d want her to. It had a lot of beauty in the beast elements in it, even though the Phantom basically kidnaps Christine half the time.

It’s a great tragic love story okay and no one can tell you otherwise.

And the music. The music is definitely going to stay with you for quite a long time. You think you’ll have to listen to think of me on repeat for the next week until you get sick of it.

As predicted, your friends gave you shit for being the only one to cry during the play, none more so than Dave. He told you that your little reactions were cute though and you’d never admit it, but you do enjoy his teasing a little bit.

Your group did a bit of picture taking in your fancy clothes while at the theatre, taking advantage of the luxurious setting. And then because you were all left hungry after the show, your chaperones take you out to a fancy restaurant to match your fancy clothing.

You almost felt like royalty coming out of the theater and the fancy restaurant with your entourage while you got local pedestrians to stare at you and group as you made your way back into the car.

Once you’ve washed up, as soon your body hits the bed, you’re out light a night light.


	27. Love-Struck Fool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 39 - Buenos Aires, Argentina  
> Day 40 - Montevideo, Uruguay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHHH next chapter will be another long one bois. Have this upd8 for now tho.

You’re woken up at six this morning, which isn’t too bad considering when you slept last night. Seven hours of sleep isn’t all that bad at all.

After the usual breakfast, your chaperones take you out for the day again to see the rest of Buenos Aires. You’ve only got five this time before the cruise leaves.

The first stop was at this big grand bookstore, and you think you cried a little bit upon walking inside. Words don’t really do the El Ateneo Grand Splendid justice, the only way you can really explain it is a bookstore mushed into a theater stage, similar to the one you saw in Teatro Colón. Only this one offers books. And a live piano band playing at the stage where plays used to be held at. They also serve coffee around the place. The ceiling was a dome shape with complex paintings that remind you of the Renaissance. Teatro Colón had a similar ceiling.

There’s two floors and the sheer enormity if it is baffling to you. There’s just _so many fucking books to see_. You’re too fucking happy to be inside this elaborate bookstore to mind the cheeky grin Dave is giving you because of your big reaction towards the place. He can go fuck himself.

You’re quick to spring on your feet, making a beeline straight for the romance section. You’ve got to at least check out as much of your favourite genre while you’re here. You’re not even aware that Dave is tailing around behind you. He seems content just watching you skim through books and try to balance stacks upon stacks of books on your hands. He makes little comments but you’re too distracted to pay any attention.

By the end of your short two hours around the place, you’ve bought yourself twenty fucking books, all in hardcovers. Dave helped you carry the other ten to the cashier while the girl behind the desk eyed your collection with wide eyes. She was really nice though and told you that you’ve got a good taste as she scanned through the books you’ve picked out. You don’t care that this is probably going to empty your bank account, this is probably the most expensive thing you’ve bought the whole cruise trip. You’re not big on spending too much for unnecessary shit.

As you’re paying for it though, Dave tells you that he can cover it for you. Rich kid privileges. He also tells you that you’re fuckin stupid for blowing all your money on books when we’ve still got a couple more days and destinations to stop through. So he wants to cover it for you. You don’t make much of a fuss because fuck you if you’re not going to take advantage of your rich friends when they’re willingly offering their money to you.

Your chaperones stuffed your book haul into the back of the van.

It was turning out to be a very good start to your day.

Next stop is at Galerías Pacífico. It’s a grand mall with yet another mind-bogglingly beautiful architecture when you step inside. Much like Teatro Colón and El Ateneo Grand Splendid, the mall has a dome-like top with more elaborate paintings on it, very renaissance like again. Your chaperones give you free rein around the place and tells you that they’ll be gathering everyone back up only when it’s time for lunch. So that meant you’ve got a solid four hours to tour around the place and see everything.

You see Feferi try to approach Sollux so they can take the time to talk while walking around and you give her a thumbs up in support. She gives you a nervous smile and waves back.

You tag along with Rose, Kanaya, Dave, John and Jade for roaming around the place. At some point, your group comes across a candy store that both Jade and John just had to go in, dragging the rest of you inside.

Needless to say, your group walks out with bags of candy that can give you a lifetime of diabetes.

You walk around some more, bantering with your friends while Dave insisted on taking pictures of your group while you walked around the mall.

You walk into a couple more different stores, getting little nick nacks around the place. Jade gets a black shirt that says in white blocky letters ‘I <3 Buenos Aires’. She tried to convince your group to buy one for the rest of the group so you can all be matching but all five of you give her a hard no on that idea. Kanaya especially, who eyed the shirt with a little apprehension.

You have fun walking around the place and laughing and making jokes with your friends. Eventually, lunchtime rolls through and those four hours seemed so short.

You stick around the mall and find a place to eat at. You had a hearty meal of steak for lunch while you purposefully sat beside Feferi so you can talk to her about how her four hours went with Sollux.

She tells you that she and Eridan and Sollux hung out and walked around the mall. She also happily tells you that things feel a little normal after Eridan graciously gave her and Sollux some time to talk while browsing through a clothing store. She tells you that she talked to Sollux about things and the two of them managed a shaky truce about the event. Eridan was apparently a great buffer for the both of them to keep things from being awkward. She even confesses to you that Eridan and Sollux seem to have really grown to actually like together after the whole event. She says she finds it funny how it took all of this for them to give each other a chance at a friendship, but she says there might be something more on Eridan’s side.

Eridan and Sollux? Sounds like a fucking disaster especially if this is the circumstances they get together on. But then again, you’ve never personally seen their new interactions up close, so you don’t know. Maybe it could work.

Feferi says she’ll support Eridan as much as she can. She’s just glad that he seems to be over her, or at least giving himself a chance with others. You suppose this is a good start to making things better again. It’s just Aradia’s side will be harder to mend with the both of them.

Once you finished lunch at one, you’re all on the move again and your chaperones get you to visit one of the famous attractions to see while in Buenos Aires. Obelisco de Buenos Aires.

It’s sixty-seven meters from the ground up. Your group spends about thirty minutes around the place, taking pictures and just generally admiring the structure. Looking up at it was kind of hard because of the blinding light of the sun whenever you tried to look up. It was a nice short visit and walk around the place after lunch.

During this short time though, you take the time to talk to Aradia. You tell her about what’s happening with Sollux and Eridan and Feferi. She tells you that she’s happy they’ve at least worked things out. She also tells you that she’s unsure about going back with Sollux after hearing the bit about Eridan. She knows she’s not ready to go back into a relationship of any kind at the moment, but she also worries that if enough time passes, Sollux’s feelings for her might change into just something more platonic. After all, both of them are going to need to get used to not being together after two years of being together. But she also tells you that her own feelings might change. She’s just not sure how time will affect both of them.

You advise her to follow what she feels is right. She doesn’t have to force herself back into a relationship with Sollux just because she worries about him maybe liking someone else during this break in their relationship. But whatever she does choose, if Sollux does change his mind, she needs to be prepared to handle what the break might entail. You assure her that two years of feelings doesn’t easily fade away so she shouldn’t be too worried. You tell her you’re there if adding Eridan to the equation messes things up further. She thanks you.

The next trip is to a local street fair happening. Feria del San Telmo is a local bazaar with more culture-based items being sold, different to the organized mall you went through in Galarías Pacífico. They sell handcrafted items and other things you wouldn’t normally see at a shop.

And so, you go to San Telmo Market to pick up some more unique things to remember Buenos Aires by. You’re also told to be aware of your things at all times, the place isn’t very safe from pickpocketers who use the crowd to steal things from right under unsuspecting tourists’ noses.

You get a couple of more things from the place. You also tip a few street performers along the place.

You spend about an hour looking at the tables of sales vendors have set up around the place before finally leaving. It’s three and you’ve still got one more thing to check out before four and you’ve all got to return back on the boat.

Your chaperones take you to the Buenos Aires botanical garden. The fresh air of the place was a nice change from the crowded, sweaty environment of the bazaar.

All types of flower bushes grew around the place in meticulous fashion. Everything was very pretty to look at and definitely instagrammable material.

During this time, Aradia actually approaches Feferi, much to her surprise, to finally talk things out. You’ll have to check in with both girls if you can when you get back on the ship. Unless your new books distract you and you hide out in your cabin.

The place was a really calming place to end the day with and soon, your chaperones are gathering you back into the car to go back to the cruise.

You haul the shit you’ve bought during the day back into your cabin and take the time to arrange things before going out to dinner.

And just like you expected, you don’t get the time to have a moment with either Feferi or Aradia the rest of the night.

As you get out of the shower after taking a long deserved bubble bath, you notice that you’ve got a text from Dave sent about an hour ago, when you hopped into the bathtub.

did you know you get this cute concentrated look when youre reading?

you really into every book you open

check it out

 

 

 

 

And he shows you a photo of you from the bookstore early this morning, waist up. You’re examining a book you got, Off The Page, with your brows knit together, lips pursed into a line. The lights behind you glittered with a slight bokeh effect, the shelves of books blurry, making you the focus once again. You bite your lip and check his instagram account.

And there it is. The photo is posted about roughly an hour ago too and it’s already got five k likes.

_The fucker bought twenty books. Can you believe it? He’s a nerd._

You roll your eyes and comment.

_Shut the fuck up, you can’t judge me. You ask me to read books to you. You’re like an oversized three-year-old that needs bedtime stories to go to sleep. @ds_strider_

You look back at the photo, smiling.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You stop at Montevideo at seven and Roxy wakes you up at approximately that time too.

The good thing about your first stop is that you’ll have the time to talk to either Aradia or Feferi about their talk yesterday. Your first stop was at Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral. The place was wide with tall ceilings in a dome, arch shape. It’s a very pretty cathedral to check out.

You get Rose and Kanaya to leave Aradia when you approached. She greets you with her usual bright smile and relief washes over you. At least she seems to be back to her usual self.

“Karkat! I’m guessing you want to know how my talk with Feferi went?” You simply nod and walk down the cathedral slowly beside her. “Well, it… Went as well as it could, I suppose. Feferi apologized to me a lot and told me that she regrets what she did and… Well, now that I’ve had plenty of time to contemplate and got some insight on all from all of my friends and seen things from different angles… I guess I can forgive Feferi.” She tells you, hands clasped behind her back.

You allow yourself to smile at her and pat her on the back. “I’m really glad to hear that. Can we both agree that this whole issue is pretty much solved?”

Aradia shrugs. “I suppose. I mean… It’ll still take time for me to completely accept her back as my friend. But we should be fine around each other without making everything so tense between us. But things like this always take time.”

You nod, putting your hands into your pocket. “It’s good enough for now.”

The two of you talk a little more about all sorts of things before Roxy gathers you up to go to your next stop for the day.

It’s ten when you visit the Museo del Carnaval. It’s a museum dedicated to understanding the longest carnival that happens in Montevideo. There are lots of props and pieces of art along with amusing costumes that Kanaya took a particular interest in.

You walk around the place with Feferi for a little while and she seems to be mostly back to her own high spirited self. She tells you that Aradia and she are at least on okay terms and they both mutually agreed not to be petty and continue holding an antagonism for one another. She tells you more things about Eridan and Sollux, who’s fucked off themselves to somewhere.

It’s good to at least see that things aren’t as bad as when they started. You’re taking responsibility for this whole thing going as smoothly as it can.

After taking two hours to look around and educate yourselves in the history, your chaperones get you the next place.

You stop by for an hour in Plaza Independencia to take pictures around the place. You spend your time with Dave this time, shooting the usual shit with him as he takes photos.

When you ask him about his instagram, he tells you that he started it all the way back when he was only fourteen. He took a lot of amateur photos and experimented with a lot of things and just posted it on instagram. At first, he just used it as a sort of storage space for all of the photos he was proud of at the time but he slowly gained a lot of followers over the years the more he improved and now he’s got a steady following of fifty-eight thousand followers who enjoy his photos. Internet fame just kinda happened on accident.

After spending an hour around the place, you’re on the go again, to lunch this time.

While you eat, you tell Rose about how the situation between Aradia, Feferi, and Sollux are going. She applauds you at your ability to convince everyone to be at least mostly good to one another despite everything that’s happened.

Once lunch is finished, you leave to check out Solis theater next. You get a tour around the place and the tour guide tells you a little bit about the history of the place. The theater is just as impressive as the one you saw in Buenos Aires.

You spend an hour there touring the place and then you’re off on the road again. The cruise ship leaves at six and there’s still a couple of things left to see.

The next point of interest is at Feria de Tristán Narvaja. It’s another sort of marketplace with lots of vendors around the place, trying to get you to buy cheap souvenir shit. Although, there were a couple of handcrafted things that obviously took effort and you grab a couple of things, little carvings and some beadwork.

It’s loud and sort of crowded around the place and at some point, you lost Terezi and everyone started panicking because hello, she’s blind how the fuck is she going to find her way back to you-

That’s exactly what she did and she laughed at all of you for still underestimating her because of her disability. Vriska totally tries to play off the fact that she was the one freaking out the most and tells your crew that she had faith in Terezi finding her way from the beginning. You and Rose share a raised eyebrow.

With the Terezi incident, you ended up spending two hours around the place and Roxy informs you that that meant you’ve only got one more hour to spend at the place before you have to go back to the cruise ship.

And so, your chaperones take you to the longest uninterrupted sidewalk to walk around in along the coastline of Montevideo while the sun was beginning to set.

You’re walking with Dave, watching the sunset to your right as you listened to him ramble about a million unrelated things.

“Can I ask you to pose for me?” He suddenly asks and you snap your head back towards him. “I mean, I totally understand if you don’t want to- I just thought I’d ask anyway.”

You blink at him a few moments while he bit his lip nervously, hands on his camera. “Sure.” You say and you surprise even yourself with your answer.

He seems surprised too and fiddles with his camera, taking a few steps to distance himself from you while you just stood awkwardly in front of him. “What should I be doing…?” You ask him, nervous, because why the fuck did you agree to let him take a photo of you? Because he already takes pictures of you without your knowledge half the time? Because of all the times, he snapped photos of you, he actually takes the time to ask you this time?

He aims the camera at you, flipping his shades up on his head for a moment. “Just smile for me?”

That was easy enough. The fact that he asks you to smile _for him_ makes your heart skip a beat and you find your lips naturally curling into a smile. It’s so stupid. He just asks you to smile for him so he can take a picture of you, it doesn’t actually mean anything. But it still makes your heart beat unnaturally.

When he puts the camera down to look at the result, you bite your lip nervously.

“Holy shit, dude.”

You run your fingers through your hair, groaning. “It’s fucking terrible, isn’t it? I always look like shit if I actually try to put effort into looking good in photos. It’s the main reason I started hating taking photos in general and just end up scowling in them.”

“No, dude, shut the fuck up with your negativity bullshit. This is honestly probably one of the best shots I’ve taken of you. Holy shit.” He tells you and you move to his side to take a look.

“You’re just exaggerating shit, Strider. I know I look like shit and even your skills can’t do anything about the tragedy that is my fucking face.”

He tilts the camera your way so you can see it. And fuck, you hate it even more, _fuck_.

You look so obviously lovestruck and you absolutely fucking hate everything about this shit. With the purple background and that messy hair and half smile to the side, and just the way your eyes soften-

“Delete it.”

Dave takes the camera away and frowns at you. “Dude, no. This fucking gold right here, why the fuck would I ever delete it?”

You feel your cheeks burning all the way to the tips of your ears. “Just delete it. I fucking hate it. Don’t even think of posting that shit to your hipster instagram page.”

He frowns at you, looking genuinely confused by your reaction. You can’t look him in the eye for too long, crossing your arms. A natural defence mechanism to hide yourself.

“Fine.” He says after a while. “I won’t post it, but I get to keep the photo. I like it.”

You glared up at him but he simply pats your head almost patronizingly. You growl.

“God, I can’t fucking believe you can’t see how fucking gorgeous you are even after all the photos I’ve taken.” He casually comments, eyes soft and your chest absolutely aches. Then, he flips his sunglasses on and starts walking down the sidewalk again.

That’s not the fucking issue. The fucking issue is that he doesn’t seem to understand the obviously fond look you have while you stared at him as he takes a photo. He doesn’t understand how obvious your feelings were in that single photo.

But your mind comes up with an even worse thought that just makes your head dizzy like you need to sit down. It makes you feel sick.

He saw it, he understood, but he ignored it. Because he doesn’t feel the same way you do and he doesn’t want to make things awkward with the blatant hint you just dropped on him without even meaning to.

You walk a step behind him while he continued to ramble at you. You simply kept your arms crossed, almost hugging yourself.

You feel sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also wondering, should I have a prize smut chapter at the end? I didn't really plan on it and I certainly didn't plan for this one to be this long... Feels like it'd just make things complete somehow. Not sure if I'll actually do it tho, this fic is already long enough as it is.


	28. Closing The Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 41 & 42 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the responses guys, I've made up my mind on what to do! Thank you for all the comments!

You didn’t feel good the whole day. You stuck beside Rose and Kanaya for most of it, avoiding Strider as much as you can without looking suspicious. You just can’t stand being with him at the moment, the twisting in your gut is worse than ever.

You finally told Kanaya your problems when Rose voluntarily left the two of you, understanding that she doesn’t always need to be around Kanaya twenty-four seven and that sometimes, she just needs some alone time with some of her other friends without Rose hovering over her shoulder.

She had that ‘I told you so’ face on for most of your shitty ramble, but was kind enough not to voice her thoughts.

“Have you ever stopped to consider that you rationalizing everything is actually irrational?”

You give her an incredulous look. “What the fuck is that shit supposed to mean? I don’t need your vague bullshit, Maryam.”

She sighs and folds her hands on top her knees. “I mean, have you considered that the way you try to rationalize things is irrational? That your mind claws at the strangest explanations for things because the simple, straightforward meaning behind them is just something you’ve labelled as an impossibility so you can’t believe it?”

“I get what you’re trying to say, but what you’re saying suspiciously sounds a lot like what Lalonde would say if she was cross-examining someone’s psyche.”

Kanaya sighs. “You’re not derailing the conversation, Karkat. Answer the question.”

“Because it literally is an impossibility?”

“Why is it so hard for you to believe that Dave might like you too?” Kanaya presses, rolling her eyes.

“I have a shit ton of evidence against it, Maryam. I can list them for you.”

Kanaya gives you a challenging look. “Alright then. Let’s go through them.”

You raise your first pointer finger. “First of all, he already told me that he likes someone else. And for a pretty damn long time too. So it clearly can’t be me since we’ve had very little interaction for the past three years.”

Kanaya raises a brow at you, looking supremely unamused. “Have you considered the idea that he’s liked you for that long but just never bothered to act on it until recently? Crushes from afar is a thing that happens, Karkat.”

You groan. “No, okay? He made it pretty clear that he disliked me in every interaction I had with him before the trip. He’s even made it pretty fucking clear on multiple occasions _during_ the trip that we’re just friends and that nothing is happening between us aside from platonic feelings.”

“Again, have you considered that he may just be deflecting his feelings because he isn’t ready to tell you yet?”

“Kanaya, you’re the one that sounds like you’re grasping at straws to make shit work.”

The jade eyed girl lets out an exasperated sigh and leans back on her lounge chair. “Alright, let’s count how many times he’s dropped hints that he likes you too.”

“There is none, Maryam. That file is fucking empty.”

She just raises an eyebrow at you once more. “The kiss.”

You slap your hands to your face to cover it. “That was just a stupid mistake fueled by the environment we were in and what we were doing at the time. Just like how Feferi kissed Sollux because it felt like a good time to do it then.”

Kanaya smirks. “Since you used Feferi as an example, you’re just making this easier for me, Karkat.”

You peak out of your hands to give her a deadpan look. “What the fuck are you even talking about, Maryam?”

She crosses her arms, looking smug now. “Feferi did what she did not just because the moment felt right, Karkat. Consider the fact that she harbours feelings for Sollux in the first place to think that it was a good idea to kiss him when the environment seemed appropriate for it.”

That gives you pause. It’s… True. Sort of. You’d need to actually _like_ someone to decide to kiss them when you’re looking at a sunset by the beach, reviewing pretty photos of each other. It’s so cliched and it definitely had every element a climax in a rom-com would have. When the couple finally gets together and share that momentous kiss.

“He told me he just wanted to be friends though.”

Kanaya groans and it’s her turn to put a hand over her face. “Karkat. Karkat, you see what you’re doing? It’s so fucking blatantly obvious but you’re still trying to rationalize things and trying to debunk every hint because the mere idea of it is just such an _impossibility to you_.”

You stay quiet, crossing your arms and hugging yourself. You look away because you know what she’s saying makes sense but… But so does the idea that he isn’t interested in you at all. You mean, what the fuck is there to even like about Karkat Vantas?

Kanaya puts a hand on your shoulder. “I know you have issues with your self-image and you just can’t see the good in yourself. But consider Nepeta. She clearly likes you too. So why is it so hard for you to accept that Dave, in particular, might like you for the same reasons as Nepeta?”

“He’s got better standards than that.” You mutter quietly.

Kanaya tightens her grip on your shoulder. “So are you implying that Nepeta has low standards for settling on liking you?”

“No, you know that's not what I meant- Argh.” You cover your face again and groan in frustration. You hate being hopeful. Being hopeful just gets you hurt in the long run.

“Karkat, I think that’s exactly what you’re trying to say. That somehow, Dave is better than Nepeta so he wouldn’t ever settle for someone like you.”

She’s right. But you’re stubborn and you don’t want to think about it. You look away and stay quiet.

Kanaya takes her hand off of you and sighs. “Listen, I know we’ve hit a point where you won’t listen to me anymore because you’re stubborn about keeping your ideals and thoughts. But just… At least let yourself think of what it would be like if he did like you back. It’s a lot more plausible than the shit you’re thinking up right now.”

God dammit, she knows you so well. But you don’t want to think about it because you don’t want to hurt yourself again. You like him too much the way you liked Terezi too much. You feel everything so intensely and you hate it. You don’t ever want to feel the same way you did when Terezi looked at you sadly and told you that you’ll only ever be a friend to her.

You don’t want to feel like you just weren’t good enough again. Like you were just a second choice.

When Aradia and Sollux got together, he stopped hanging out with you as much. Gamzee slowly drifted away from you and he hangs out with Tavros all the time now. When Terezi quote-unquote “broke up” with you, she started hanging around Vriska more often. You were scared that you totally fucked up your relationship with John after you kissed him. Jade told you that you were sweet, but that she just didn’t see you as a potential love interest.

Thinking about all of this is really making you feel shitty so you stop that train of thought.

Kanaya sits by you in silence, and you’re just fine with that. You’re not teary-eyed at all. You’re not. It’s just the dust in the air.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

There’s a masquerade party that the cruise ship is holding. It’s in one of the fancy restaurants with fancy white tableclothed tables and origami napkins and a dozen different types of forks and knives for different types of food.

Everyone coaxed you to come out in your dark velvet red suit and wear a mask provided by the restaurant upon entry. They were being strict about attire and only formal clothing is allowed inside since this is a fancy masquerade ball of the sorts.

The mask you’ve chosen is a silver one with vague hints towards the cancer sign decorating it. Like a silver crab and silver shells at the corners.

You came in with Rose and Kanaya. Kanaya wears an elegant dark forest green deep v neck with a similar open back, the straps holding it together crossing one another at the back. She picked up a similarly coloured mask with glittering black gems and a fancy swirl of the Virgo symbol adorned the left side.

Rose wore a long pastel purple dress with sheer long sleeves and a high cut on the left side. She wore a black mask that imitated a lace pattern against a dark violet background. They both looked gorgeous, of course.

You weren’t really sure what to do in a masquerade party so you mostly stuck around the girls, making small talk as they walked to the banquet table with all sorts of hors-d'oeuvres. There, you meet up with Jade who’s already stuffed her plate with a bunch of desserts.

She’s wearing a sweetheart dress with a green galaxy design, the skirt of the dress fluttering out prettily around her. Her mask was emerald green with emeralds and green glitter decorating it.

“Oh my god!! You all look so good!” Jade gushes, waving her fork around excitedly. “Especially you, Karkat! You should slick your hair back like that more often!”

Your roll your eyes. “This whole shit was done against my will.”

“Well, you look hot either way!” She compliments, winking over at Kanaya who covers her mouth to hide a laugh.

“Don’t you think Dave would like to see it? Where is he, by the way?” Rose says smoothly and you glare at her, something she resolutely ignores. Jade laughs.

“I actually don’t know where he is right now! I last saw him with John, goofing around and trying to mess each other’s hair.” Jade informs.

Rose nudges you. “Care to go find some of your male friends? I think me, Jade and Kanaya are gonna go look for the other girls.” She tells you straightforwardly and you roll your eyes.

You take her hint and fuck off, roaming around the place for a little bit. A few strangers compliment you and a few girls have tried to talk to you, but you excuse yourself a lot. You’re really not one for social interaction, much less getting hit on by complete strangers. You’d really rather prefer to get to know someone before making any advancements of any sort.

While aimlessly walking around the place, you steal some sparkling wine from a waiter handing them out and lean against one of the walls. You probably look old enough to pass as a young adult so he didn’t question you, thankfully. You just sip your drink quietly, crowd watching. Classical music is playing in the background. And then the last person you expected to approach you does.

“Can I ask a favour from you?” Equius is clad in a deep blue suit with a black undershirt and a tie that matches his suit. His longish hair is tied behind his back in a low ponytail and he honestly does clean up really good. He’s got a deep black mask on that shines under the light with the Sagittarius symbol decorating the corners.

“Oh, um. Sure I guess? Depends on what it is.” You reply, shrugging your shoulders.

He makes a show of straightening out his suit. “It’s about Nepeta.”

_Oh._

You think you know where this is going. “What about her…?”

He sighs, shoulders slumping. “I really hate that I have to go to you to smoothen things out, but it’s just not healthy for Nepeta to like you anymore and I don’t know what else to do about it.”

You frown at that. “Wait, what? What’s up with Leijon?”

“She’s been really down on herself lately and I know it’s from her unrequited crush on you. She’s talked at length to me about it. I know I can’t sway her feelings but it’s kind of painful to watch her pine after you when you’re clearly not interested. So…” He tells you, fidgeting with the cufflinks of his suit and looking away from you. “I wanted to formally ask you to properly turn her down. I know this may sound rude, but having her chasing after you is… It’s not a very pretty sight to see my best friend try her hardest for someone who won’t ever look at her that way.”

There it is. You bite your lip, staring down at your glass of sparkling wine. “I mean, I don’t mind doing it… I’ve tried to in the past, but she’ll always get into this way where she looks desperate and I… I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I don’t want to make her cry.”

He gets a serious face on and it makes you nervous. “Trust me, you’ve already done that on multiple occasions. You never had to see it, but I certainly did. So I’m gonna ask you again. Can you turn her down properly this time?”

Guilt is eating you up now. The thought of Nepeta crying over you when you’re not looking never even crossed your mind. Fuck, how fucking inconsiderate are you? You say you love your friends but you never even saw one of them suffering despite their cheery demeanour.

You swallow thickly. “Of course.”

Equius looks relieved to hear it. “Can you do it now? She’s looking for you anyway.”

You look around at the crowd around you for a moment and nod. He sighs. “Thank you. Don’t tell her I asked you to if she asks why you’re doing this now compared to all the times you could’ve in the past, alright?”

You nod again and he gives you a curt nod before weaving his way into the crowd and disappearing. You close your eyes and down the rest of your drink. You place it onto a nearby table before walking around again.

As you’re looking around, you think you caught sight of a pair of ruby eyes in the crowd, but it’s gone as soon as you notice it. You chalk it up as your imagination.

You eventually find Leijon by herself in the corner, looking a little lonely. Fuck, this is gonna make things so much harder.

She’s wearing a pretty green blouson dress with slits at the sleeves to show her arms. Her mask is a beige one with gold glitter all over it and a green Leo sign at the corner. It matches her brown wedges.

When she spots you, she looks a little surprised before smiling when she finally recognized you as you got closer. “Karkitty! You look really good, this suit really fits you!”

Her cheery voice is like a sharp knife to your gut, knowing what you’re about to do. “Thanks, Nepeta. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something, can you follow me somewhere more… Private…?”

Her eyes seemed to twinkle and she nods almost bashfully. Fuck you might’ve just given the wrong signal. Christ, you’re gonna make a fucking mess of this. You’re great at relationships. Just not your own.

You take her hand and lead her through the crowd, trying to find a secluded enough area. Along one of the walls though, you find a glass door that leads out to a balcony and you make a beeline for it. Thankfully, it looks like nobody has claimed the space yet.

You step outside into the cool night air, with the wide ocean sprawling out in front of you. You quietly close the door and sigh, moving to take off your mask. Doing it with it on feels impersonal since she won’t see your face. Which, in theory, is probably best, to save your own skin. But you want to do this properly.

Nepeta seems hesitant to take hers off but she eventually does. When she finally does though, she lets out a sad, forced laugh. You frown.

“This is it, isn’t it?” She mutters quietly, toying with the ribbon around her mask.

“What?” You ask, genuinely confused. She laughs again, a little more naturally this time like she honestly found that funny. You’re confused.

“I can see it on your face, Karkat. You look at me like I’m some recently rescued puppy in an animal shelter. Pitiful, and a little pained. Honestly, you look kinda constipated.” She giggles, keeping her eyes down on the mask she plays with in her hands.

Fuck. You’re just that transparent, huh? Always wearing your fucking heart on your sleeve. You swallow thickly. “I’m sorry.”

She waves a dismissive hand, a strange cheery smile still on her face and rolls her eyes. “Please, don’t. I don’t need you saying sorry to me for anything. I don’t want to feel any more pathetic than I already do.”

You’re really fucking this up right off the bat. She looks down again, keeping her face down so you can only see the top of her head. “Equius asked you, didn’t he?” She mutters quietly, scuffing her shoe at the floor beneath.

You’re not going to lie. “Yeah. Yeah, he did.” You say, voice a little strained.

Another forced laughter. It sounds really painful and you wish she'd stop it. Just drop the cheery act because you know it’s got to be painful to keep it up, to act like everything is fine when it’s not.

“I knew it.” She mutters, a little breathlessly. “He’s tried many times to gently tell me to get over it. But it’s just something you don’t get over with easily, you know? There’s no off switch for feelings, no matter how much we wish it did. And you can’t control what you feel for other people around you either.”

You put your mask on the railing before awkwardly put your hands into your pockets and look away from her. This… This is really difficult, even for you. You can’t bear to look at her knowing how obliviously cruel you’ve been to her.

“I know what I feel won’t suddenly stop, even after this. But maybe… Maybe stopping here might actually just be the beginning to that path, y’know? I knew from the start that you’d never look at me like you do with Terezi. Or Jade. Or… Dave. But I just wanted to try anyway, that maybe, somehow, I can make you look at me like that too. I guess I spent too much time in my own head that I started to hurt myself with my own fantasies in the process.” Her voice gets shaky at this point and you want to correct her about Dave but… What’s the point of continuing to lie about it to others who’ve figured it out too? What’s the point of hiding what you feel? You're apparently really shit at that so why try?

You see her move her hand to her face, one hand holding the mask tightly. “I just… I just wanted to say…” She takes a deep breath and slowly finally lifts her head to face you. Her face is clearly streaming with tears, even as she tried to wipe them away with her hand. They won’t stop and you feel a deep ache in your chest.

 _You’ve never had to see it, but I certainly did_.

She laughs, the sound like broken glass to your ears. “God… This is so embarrassing but.” She sniffles and tries her best to smile up at you like Nepeta Leijon normally would. Bright and cheery, always. Even at times like this. “I don’t regret falling in love with you, Karkat. Even if this hurts really badly, and it feels like my chest is cracking, I don’t regret it.” She tells you in that classic happy voice of hers, but it sounds so forced that you can’t help yourself. She even dropped the cat puns and called you by your first name.

You can’t help but take step forward and wrap your arms around her. Even if this may cause more harm than good, you genuinely still do care about Nepeta as a friend. And it hurts to see her this way, knowing it’s _your_ fault. Even she deserves someone better than yourself.

As if the dam finally broke, she cries hard into your chest, clutching her arms around you tightly. She cries openly now, she sobs and makes these broken noises you wish you can stop, but you know you can’t. It’s not your duty to. That belongs to someone who truly cares about her, deeply and unforgivingly. And that’s not you.

You let her cry into you, holding her shaking form and petting her head lightly. Once she’s calmed down enough, she’s the one to pull away and take a step away from you. She sniffles, another laugh bubbling from her.

“I hope we can still be friends though.” She tells you and you smile at her.

“Always.”

She smiles at you as she wipes at her eyes. “I’ll see you around, Karkitty. And good luck with Strider!” She tells you cheerfully, as she opens the door back to the party. She grins at you, pure and genuine before turning around and walking away, the door silently falling closed behind her.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Your name is Nepeta Leijon and you just got your heart broken. You slip on your mask to hide the puffiness in your eyes and sniffle. You’re on a mission.

You easily find Equius by the banquet table, just standing around and trying to look like he’s not uncomfortable at all in his stuffy suit. The dork.

You walk up to him and grab his hand. Before he can even see your face past the mask, you start pulling him through the crowd and out the front.

“Nepeta…?” He asks you worriedly as you continue to tug him around a corner. Until you find an empty corridor. You can’t manage enough effort to do anything more than that and find a more private space. This’ll have to do.

You drop his hand and clench your hands into fists to stop them from shaking so much. But you already know that he knows. He always knows. When it comes to you, he always knows.

You rip the mask off of your face and throw it down to the ground, unable to hold back the whimper in your throat. You feel his strong hand on your shoulder. Asking you to turn around but not forcing you.

He doesn’t say anything when you turn around and bury your face into his chest, letting yourself cry once more. Doesn’t say anything when you grab a handful of his suit and pull him closer against you. Doesn’t say anything about the pathetic cries that bubbles out from you.

He just stands there, arms around you and holding you just as tightly. He buries his face into your hair and the two of you just stand there. He lets you cry. He doesn’t tell you “I told you so", doesn’t press you for details.

He just.

He lets you cry and cry and cry, and you know you’re safe when you’re with him.

He lets you cry and cry and cry until you can’t anymore and just a few hiccups bubble up from your throat. He holds you close. He holds you, taking everything until there’s nothing left for you to give.

He holds you until you stop making any noises at all. He holds you until you’re quiet, comfortable in his embrace and the silence around you.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

You look out to the ocean, preferring to be alone after all of that. You don’t think you can take any more social interactions. You just feel tired, physically and emotionally and you’re really ready to jump back into bed. You pull your phone out from your suit jacket pocket and check the time. It’s only ten forty four at night.

You hear the door open behind you and when you glance back, you’re surprised to see Dave. He’s in the same suit you dressed him up in a long time ago. Black suit, black button up shirt, and a bright red tie. You can see his eyes sparkling behind the red and silver mask that sits on his face. His stance is relaxed as he moves to lean against the railing beside you.

“What have you been up to, Vantas? Is making girls cry your new hobby? Didn’t know you were a heartless heartthrob, breaking girls’ hearts left and right. Damn. I better not wear my heart on my sleeve, don’t want you breaking it too.” He teases you in that monotonous voice of his. You roll your eyes.

“I’d actually appreciate it if you kept the jokes to a minimum right now. What you saw or did not see was emotionally tiring and I’m ready to sleep right about now.”

He goes quiet, looking at his hands. “Sorry.”

You raise an eyebrow. You did not expect him to take you seriously. You mean, you’re glad because you honestly don’t think you can take him spewing more bullshit onto your lap, but you didn’t expect him to take it this seriously. You thought he still would’ve tried to lighten the mood.

He doesn’t say anything more after that and you’re perfectly fine with that. You stay quiet and look out serenely at the waves shining under the moonlight.

“Do you want to hear the rest of my story?” He asks you and you glance at him. He looks back at you before moving to take his own mask off so you can see his face fully.

“Story?” You ask, a little unsure about what he’s talking about.

He chuckles. “My sad, tragic backstory. You just leveled up right now, dude, do you want to hear the story you just unlocked?”

You give him your attention. “Really? What’d I do to suddenly level up enough to unlock your tragic backstory, Strider? How do I earn EXP in that fucked up system of yours anyway?”

He shrugs. “You look like you need something to take your mind off of things. I don’t know if this is a good topic really, to get you distracted because it is not a pretty story and might just make you even more depressed, but the offer is there if you want to take it, man.”

You shrug. “Sure, let’s hear it.”

“Warning, your perception of me might change into a sad little emo child who likes taking photos and using layers upon layers of irony to run away from his issues.” He tells you, smirking a little. You roll your eyes again.

“Nothing can change my mind about you being a raging douchebag with a penchant for hipster shit because he thinks he’s cooler than everybody else.” You assure him. He chuckles at that.

“Seriously though, bro. Whatever I’m about to tell you, you don’t need to be like. Sad or feel bad for me or anything. It’s in the past and I’m over it. Mostly.” He fidgets a little. “I just want to tell you my story. I’m not looking for anything from you by telling this story.”

You smile lazily and nod. “I promise. I can do that much.”

He nods and looks out to the view in front of you while he plays with his mask absentmindedly in his hands. You continue to just look at him until he starts.

“When I went to the Lalondes at ten, I was put into therapy. Dirk insisted on it and he took a few sessions beside me. We both saw a therapist for the things we’ve been through. It took a long ass time for me to open up, a little longer than Dirk. I mean, he was mostly open about the shit that went down when we were younger, but when probed about how he felt about it, he would close up completely. I just refused to say anything. Like I told you before, I have issues with letting people in and being vulnerable with people. Even if I know I can trust them. But I still didn’t know about that back then. So most of the time, the therapist, a nice lady named Sandra, would have to guess at my feelings towards the subjects we touched until I cracked everytime she got one of the guesses right. They pieced together our story from fragments of what Dirk has told his therapist and from how I reacted when those subjects are touched upon. That’s the only way they got me to talk, when I emotionally break and I finally talk about my issues because I didn’t have the energy to keep up the facade.”

You listen to him intently, resting your head in your arms on the railing.

“We talked about all sorts of things and I was in therapy for five years. I only finally stopped a little after my sixteenth birthday when Sandra decided that I’m stable enough to go on without her. She was very adamant about coming to her if I relapsed though or if my past issues started becoming a problem for me again in the present. So, we talked about a lot of things but there were specific events that stood out in my memory as the most traumatic. Burned into my memory, kind of. But anyway, one of those moments was the polaroid story I told you about. I didn’t tell you but after I cried about having it broken, I got my ass kicked for being a ‘pussy’. He called me a gay faggot and told me not to cry about stupid shit like that. He did pretty much the same thing when he found out I was writing actual lyrics for an actual song I was working on. He deleted my progress and ripped up the paper I wrote my lyrics on.”

You frown but stay quiet, letting him continue.

“Dirk was out of the house at the time and it was just he and I so I had to fight for my fucking life. Dirk usually took most of the blows for me, but there are times when he’d beat both of our asses to the point that I actually got pretty proficient with fighting against him. I had to be. Did I mention he made us fight him with real ass katanas and swords? He called it strifing and told me that a real man has to know how to fight all types of combat. So if you were wondering, that’s where I got most of my scars from. And Dirk, being smart that he is, knew that the shit he was putting us through wasn’t fucking normal. But he also knew he can’t contact anyone because he’d be severely injured for it if he was caught. So he took his time trying to find the right moment to get to the phone and call nine one one. Before the operator can even get the address from where Dirk was calling from- they can do that by tracking the signal but it takes a bit of time, and they always send police to check out the place just in case- but before they can do that, he… He cut the phone cord.”

He takes a deep breath here, blowing out a puff of air. You’re tense now.

“He cut the phone cord and he made Dirk strife with him to exhaustion. When they came back from the roof of the apartment, he just dumped him into the futon, getting blood and shit _everywhere_ . He didn’t give a shit though, there’s been dried blood stains all over the place anyway. He just left the apartment to go god knows where to do whatever shit it was that he did. I was six and I learned how basic medical shit from youtube to help Dirk out. That was our routine. Because Dirk took most of the fights for me, I ended up having to learn how to care for him afterwards. When I was the one injured, he would do the same to me even if he was injured himself. Most of the time, if I fucked up and I was expected to strife, Dirk would lock me in my room and tell me not to come out until he comes back. That was our routine and although we both knew what was happening was wrong, that it was- that it was _abuse_ , we couldn’t do jack shit about our living situation.”

You bite your lip, transfixed in the things he’s telling you. They’re terrible things, but he trusts you to listen to them intently and not interrupt.

“You’ve probably seen, most of our scars are kept in the torso and shoulders but nothing on the arms. The shitty thing was that he was smart too. To make sure the shit he did to us was never found out by anybody. He locked the door whenever he left, and ever since Dirk tried to phone someone for help, he cut all the phone cords and made sure to keep his phone on him at all times. He’s already got our computers looked after. He blocked every fucking social media we might access, except pesterchum. But even that was highly monitored. Our computers were rigged to alert him if we type certain keywords or phrases. Dirk found that out the hard way when he tried telling Roxy at some point. The damages that day weren’t pretty.”

He gets quiet here for a moment, staring down at the ocean below us.

“He denied everything when Roxy asked about the one time he tried to talk to her about ‘abuse’. She wasn’t stupid, she knew something was up, she just didn’t know what it was so she couldn’t help all that much. Me and Dirk were both home schooled, and we met our friends through pesterchum during the early days. I met John first, then Jade, and Roxy introduced me to Rose. Dirk found Roxy a long time ago when he searched through our family history for any extended relatives on the internet. He was disowned by his family a long time ago under unknown circumstances and they cut all ties with him. At least that’s as much as Roxy can gather from her mom about the Strider side of the family. She was studying abroad with Jane during this time so Rose was left alone with her mom back then. But when she did come home for summer break when she was sixteen, she gave Dirk her address and asked him to come visit.”

“Of course, he couldn’t. He told her a thousand excuses why he couldn’t come except for the real one. But she eventually stopped insisting. Our lives were shitty. He barely brought back food, there were swords in the fridge, and me and Dirk would go days without food. But he feeds us enough to be alive. And even though he kept the house under heavy lockdown, one misstep from him was all it took for Dirk to get us out of there. It was a fucking miracle, when he came home drunk one night, and left the keys to the door on the counter while he fuckin passed out in the living room. Dirk made me dress up- even if it was fucking Houston and it’s still hot at shit during the night -and pack up a few things into a backpack before we were out of there. I was ten, Dirk was sixteen, and it was June eighth when we arrived at the Lalonde residence, thankfully in the Houston area too. Dirk remembered Roxy’s address and we walked all the way there since we didn’t have the money to get a cab.”

You didn’t notice it but you’ve shifted closer to him. He doesn’t seem to have noticed either.

“Ms. Lalonde called the fucking cops and sent them to his fuckin apartment that night after we told her a bit about our home life. Within a few minutes, a cop told us that they found him still drunk and that they arrested him for various charges for the shit we told them he put us through. The only good the scars and bruises served for was having evidence of his shitty ways of raising kids. Since then, Ms. Lalonde legally adopted the two of us and we became Roxy and Rose’s long-lost siblings. I was put through therapy and I had a few severe bouts of dissociation during the recovery process. Sometimes I wouldn’t remember certain things until later on or I just couldn’t relate to the things I was talking about because it didn’t actually felt like it was happening to me in the first place. My mind’s ways of trying to cope with the shit I was put through.”

He finally looks at you and something about him feels different. Looks different.

“So yeah. That my tragic backstory and my miracle of getting out and my long journey through recovery under the care of the Lalondes. Rose and I tried to keep my therapy under wraps from everyone a few years ago because I wasn’t particularly fond of telling everyone and having them ask me a bunch of questions I’d rather not answer. Actually, you’re like the fourth person to find out about this in our friend group, excluding family. Kanaya knows most of it from Rose’s perspective and I explained things to John and Jade since I was in contact with them during those first shitty years of my life. Do you feel like a special little snowflake yet, Kitkat?”

You know he’s trying to lighten the mood, trying to not make a big deal about a serious issue that he went through in his life. You take the bait.

“Yeah. I do kind of feel like a special little snowflake.” You tell him, smiling. You’ve stood up straighter after he told his story and you’re staring at him now.

Neither of you says anything. Neither of you feel the need to say anything, like anything would fit the current situation anyway. You just feel this strange charged energy between the two of you and you can’t stop yourself from getting close. And closer. And closer. Until your shoulders are pressed to one another and you’re slightly going on your tip toes and leaning in and he’s not moving away, looking at you with those ruby red eyes of his-

“There you are! John’s looking for you- Oh my god am I interrupting something??” Jade bursts through the door and the two of you immediately jump apart from each other. She stares at each of you with wide eyes behind her mask, a hand reaching up to her mouth.

You look away, awkwardly rubbing the back of your neck, feeling it burning under your touch. Dave is pretty much doing the same thing, a light dusting of pink on his cheeks.

Jade bites her lip. “John’s looking for you inside, Dave.” She tells him what she came to tell him before eyeing you nervously.

“Yeah. Okay, thanks.” He mutters quietly, moving past Harley and back into the party. Jade watches him disappear into the crowd before jumping to your side.

“Oh my god, I am so fucking sorry for walking in on you two having a moment!” She apologizes dramatically.

“‘S fine. We weren't having a moment, you were fine.”

She slides her mask upwards to give you a deadpan look. Then, she sighs and shrugs. “Sure. If that’s what you want to believe, whatever. Are you coming back into the party?”

You pull out your phone and check the time. Eleven thirty-nine. You shake your head. “I think I’ll stay here for a little while longer.” She nods and leaves you alone with the ocean, the moon, and your thoughts.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The next day was… Awkward.

You avoid him and he avoids you. After what happened last night, you expected to have a strangely intimate connection with him, but the two of you are avoiding even looking at each other. Maybe it’s the fact that _something_ almost happened again at the balcony. What Kanaya told you to make even more painful sense to you.

And now, equipped with this new knowledge… You honestly don’t fucking know what to do with it. Actually, there’s still a part of you refusing to believe it. Telling you that you read the situation wrong and that there was actually absolutely nothing there. For once, you refuse to listen to this voice.

But you still don’t fucking know what to do with this information. 

So you hung out around Rose and Kanaya again. You don’t tell Kanaya about what happened though or your thoughts about it. You won’t be able to handle the smugness in her expression without wanting to claw out your own eyes with your fingernails.

And so the day proceeds and you still don’t know what the fuck you’re going to do.

And this disrupts your sleep so much that you just can’t fucking sleep properly. So at twelve in the midnight, you slip out of bed and sneak out of your cabin to watch the waves lap against the ship as you travelled to your next destination. If you don’t get sleep soon, you’re really going to regret it because you’re doing tourist shit again tomorrow.

But your thoughts keep swirling around that elusive question, keeping you wide awake.

What the fuck are you going to do?

And the least expected person comes around from the corner, holding a mountain dew bottle in his hand. He stares at you, clearly surprised that you’re still up and watching the night like some angsty teenager from a bad fanfiction. Then, he smiles.

Dirk walks up to the railing beside you, opening up the cap of his mountain dew. “What’re you doing still up? You know Roxy is going to wake you up early tomorrow.”

You shrug. “Couldn’t sleep.”

He raises an eyebrow at you as he chugs his drink down before answering. “I can tell. You look troubled.”

Again, you shrug. “What about you, what’re you doing up this late?”

He chuckles lowly and you’re struck by how similar the two of them are. “Insomniac. I decided to use this time productively by doing a bit of programming and coding on a robotics project of my mine. A thesis project for college.”

You nod and look back out to the sea. He still doesn’t leave though. “Can I take a guess on what you’re thinking about?” He says instead.

You raise a brow at him. He smirks at you, and again, it looks like you’re staring at an older version of Dave with different shades. “It has something to do with my brother, doesn’t it?”

You look away and stare at your hands, feeling your cheeks heat up. He laughs silently. “The fucker’s indecisive as shit. My tip? Make the first move.” He tells you simply before pushing off the railing and heading back to his own cabin. “Don’t stay up too late beating yourself up about it. Get some sleep.”

And with that, a soft click can be heard from behind you as he closes the door to his room.

That absolutely didn’t help you one bit.

You groan in frustration and eventually just go back into your cabin. It takes some tossing and turning but you eventually get your beloved sleep.

You dream of three words said in an overly dramatic southern drawl and you dream of laughing. You dream of soft pillows and silken sheets, a movie playing in the background. You dream of those three words again, but this time it’s said with such sincerity that it leaves you with no doubts about it at all.

When you wake up in the morning, you just know. You know this is the day.


	29. Lost Love Is Sweeter When It's Finally Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 43 - Ilhabela, Brazil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen. 100k words and we've finally made it.
> 
> Kudos to the person who figures out the song I'm referencing with the title of this one and chapter 21 all that time ago.
> 
> It's day 43 guys! We're nearing the end! Just a little over two more weeks of days to post! And I finished the fic yesterday! Just doing the epilogue and a bonus chapter at the end. I'm 98% done with the fic and I'm getting kinda sad at having to say goodbye to writing it :") But we'll save all that for when I do finally post the final chapter on here. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show~
> 
> This is for all the ones who have been scorned by unfinished multi-chapter fics (I'm fucking guilty of this one too and I am so sorry for those that followed the fics I never got to finish or plan on finishing :") ). A love letter to ya'll who deserve some more quality content to read about these two idiots.
> 
> I hope this lives up to your expectations :')

She tells you to wear hiking ready clothes and swimsuits along with a couple of clothes to change into. Ilhabela is full of beaches and nature walks so you’ve got to be prepared for it.

And so, you do just as she instructed. Your group have breakfast at seven sharp in the morning and leave the ship at eight. There’s plenty of places to see around Ilhabela but you’ve got very minimal time to enjoy them as the cruise ship will only be staying until six in the evening. Which sucks. But you’ll make the most of it as much as you can.

You left the cruise ship at eight after docking at seven. The first place you went to see was an old church around the place, Nossa Senhora D’ajuda e Bom Sucesso Church. There’s a statue of Christ on the cross just out front and a few of you snapped a photo of it.

The inside of the church wasn’t as impressive as some of the other churches you’ve visited, but it was still different and interesting to look at. You also learned a bit about the place and how it’s the oldest church standing in Ilhabela. You spend an hour around the place before Roxy happily takes you to the next place.

Ilhabela is mostly made up of scenic beaches and amazing views hidden by hiking trails. Roxy tells you that you’ll be spending the rest of the afternoon at a specific beach, but for the morning, she and the others are taking you hiking up places to see a few things. She tells you that you’re gonna get plenty wet either way.

After the church, you’re led into the woods by your chaperones and up on a strenuous hiking trail in Ilhabela State Park.

It takes a long while of walking with a lot of complaining from all of your friends, but by ten, you reach a pretty body of water in a bunch of rocks with a pretty tame waterfall falling from the side. Roxy tells you to take some pictures, but you’re not taking a dip here. She says that there’s somewhere else you’re trying to reach, even more amazing than this one.

The waters were clear and the place smelt of spring water. It was definitely a good sight to take pictures at, it just gave you string vibes of tranquillity while there.

After spending thirty minutes there, you continue your hike and not very long after seeing that small pool of water among the rocks, you come across a raging waterfall that comes from the top of a very tall rock face. Sounds of amazement go through your group and many photos were taken.

Roxy then happily tells you that you’re in Cachoeira do Gato, an impressive waterfall and one of the number one spots to see while in Ilhabela. She tells you that you’re free to take a dip in the body of water that’s accumulated at the bottom of the waterfalls.

That really got everyone excited. It wasn’t long before everyone has got their things settled down and away from the water and started to change clothes to take a dip in the water. Some of you were already wearing your swimsuits underneath your clothes, especially the girls, and the guys only really needed to change into swim trunks and take their shirts off.

It wasn’t long before everyone was playing in the freshwater, laughing and having fun with one another. Terezi dragged you into a game of tag in the water with Jade, John, Feferi, Vriska, Tavros, and Gamzee.

At some point though, you see Dave climbing up some rocks and disappearing in a ridge behind the waterfall. You can barely see his outline with the waterfall spewing out from the top and spraying water everywhere. You decide to follow him.

Climbing up the rocks prove to be a tricky endeavour because you’re wet, the rock is wet, and everything is kind of slippery. So you take your time until you reach the same ridge and climb onto it.

He flicks his shades up onto his face when he sees you coming, a mildly surprised expression on his face. You carefully crawl over to sit beside him, watching the waterfall like a curtain in front of you. You feel a few droplets land on you as you let your feet dangle over the edge. “What are you doing here?” You ask him. He shrugs.

“Dunno. Wanted to get away a little, I guess? It’s pretty, quiet, and peaceful here. Okay, maybe not quite, the waterfall is loud as fuck, but it’s not in a disruptive manner. If you get what I mean. And I’m half hidden by the waterfall, so.”

You nod and the two of you sit in silence. He’s shirtless again, and so are you, but you can’t help your eyes from wandering. You remember what he told you two nights ago, and now, you can clearly see them. Some big, some little white lines decorating his body.

He easily notices you eyeing at him and audibly sighs. He leans forward and hugs his knees so you can see his back and begins to talk. “I made a mistake. I was five and I made a mistake.”

You bite your lip and move closer, hesitantly reaching a hand out. When he nods to give you permission, you tentatively brush your fingers across the biggest scar on his back, starting from the shoulder blades and snaking down his back. You trace the line lightly with your fingers and you feel him shiver slightly from your touch. Your heart skips a beat.

“I was five, and I was forced to strife him on the roof. Dirk was in no condition to fight for me even if he wanted to. He caught me looking at poetry in my computer history and dragged me upstairs that afternoon and threw a sword my way, one I barely caught properly. I remember how hot the concrete of the roof was from the Texan sky.” He continues, as you reach the end just above his shorts. You trace the line back up again with your whole hand and feeling the raised skin.

“I was fighting him but at some point, I tripped and fell on my back. He was on me in less than a second and raised his sword. I instinctively rolled over and tried to shield my body with my arms. I thought he wouldn’t go through with it since he only ever harms us if we fuck up our form and make little mistakes during fights that give him an opening. To teach us a lesson is what he said. Not when we’re completely down. Today was different though.” You can barely hear his voice over the roar of the water so you lean into him to hear better, your eyes half-lidded as you continued to run your hand up gently up and down his back, hoping to be somehow comforting.

“I fell and rolled over to try and protect my body when I saw him raising the sword. I thought the blow would never come, but then I felt searing pain across my back, quick and sharp. I remember seeing the sword dripping with dark red blood, staining the rooftop concrete. He carried me over his shoulder so he doesn’t have to touch the wound. I doubt it had anything to do with not hurting me and more like he just didn’t feel like having his hands dirty with blood. He dumped me in my room and Dirk was quick to assess the situation. Even with a healing wound of his own on his torso, he forced himself to move and stitch up the cut in my back before it got infected. It was one of the worst pain I’ve felt in my life.” He tells you before falling silent, staring out at the white waterfall.

You look at him, your hand stopping at his lower back and slowly pulling away from him. He glances at you and you meet his scarlet gaze head-on. Again, from this close, you can see the flecks of red in his eyes, like a glittering jewel under lights.

 _Make the first move_.

His words come back to you, and you swallow thickly. You’re suddenly very aware of the heat he radiated and the heat of your own body rising as you realized the intimate actions you just did while he told you his story. You’re aware of your cheeks burning to the tips of your ears, aware of the closeness of the two of you, aware of the loud beating of your heart trying to escape your chest.

 _Make the first move_.

You can see the little droplets on his still wet hair dripping down onto his body, see the relaxed stance he has being around you, see the hint of a rosy flush on his face, see the way his lips are slightly parted. You force your eyes to meet his own again and you feel like your whole body is burning.

Everything feels like it’s slowed to a stop. A single moment in time and space where the tension has reached its peak. The elastic is about to snap and collide back together.

And in one fluid motion, with your hands on either side of you on the rocky ridge, you press your lips to his.

You’re quick to pull away though, embarrassed and nervous, but before you can even pull away enough to see his expression, his hand flies to the back of your neck and pulls you back in. And you let him take control from here on out.

You clench your hands into tight fists and press yourself against him as much as you can while both of his hands cup your cheeks, keeping you close. His lips press insistently on yours, and you shiver when he licks your lower lip before nipping at it. And he does it again until you can’t help but open your mouth and let him in. It was warm, very warm, and you feel like you’re overheating.

It’s your first time kissing someone in this way. Fuck, you’ve never even kissed anyone properly since you barely dated anyone because the people you go after always end up turning you down. But somehow, kissing Dave like this feels natural to you, as if your body already knows how to respond to every little movement, like it’s done this practiced dance before, again and again until you’ve mastered it… But this is your first time ever kissing him, so why? Why would your body know how to react before you do?

He kisses you until you’re both breathless and you need to part to take a breath. And even then, he only gives you a short break before he kisses you again like he can’t get enough of it. And you let him kiss you, long and slow the second time around.

It feels like fireworks are going off inside your stomach everytime you kiss. It’s a little hard to believe that this is actually happening to you, that he actually _likes_ you back. But when you did finally part, and you see the way his smile reaches his eyes and makes them twinkle, you can finally believe that what just happened actually did just happen. And it makes you laugh.

He laughs too, and it makes your stomach churn in the best ways possible. You want to hear him laugh like this more often. You want to be the reason he laughs like this.

He shifts his position so he can snake his arm around your waist and bring you closer to him, bodies flush against one another. Then, he kisses you again, soft, quick and chaste. You laugh again. You can’t help it, you’re just so damn happy.

The feeling like this has happened before like you’ve done this before sometime in the distant past, blossoms inside your chest. But it doesn’t feel strange or uncomfortable anymore. It just feels _right_. Like you’ve been chasing after something you never knew you needed until you’ve finally found it. Like you’ve been searching for countless centuries, time and time again, trying to find each other unconsciously and something just feels so right, like everything has fallen into place when you’re with him. The way you fit together like pieces to a puzzle, like this was always meant to happen, again and again, and again, even after this life ends. You’ll be someone new, in a different time, a different place, a different circumstance, but you’ll always unconsciously find your way back to him again.

You wonder if this is what it feels like when you’ve found your soulmate. Like you just know that everything will work out, despite whatever may happen between the two of you from here on out. Because you will make it work out. You don’t plan on letting go of this feeling, now that you’ve found it again.

Lost love is so much sweeter when it’s finally found.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

By lunch, around twelve, your chaperones gather you back up to change into your normal clothes so you can hike back to civilization and have a proper meal. The water from the waterfalls is fresh so it isn’t salty and sticks to your skin uncomfortably. You just dried off naturally over time and it just feels like a shower, so there wasn’t any problem with getting out of the water and back into comfortable clothes.

After exiting the little ridge hidden by the waterfalls, the two of you agree not to let anybody know, not yet anyway. The two of you got a kick out of the idea of letting your friends wonder about your relationship after you told him that they were apparently setting bets on when the two of you would ‘finally’ get together. You both agree to just act like you normally do around each other, and if anyone bothers to ask either of you up front, you’ll tell them exactly what’s happening. You don’t plan on making a big announcement about getting together with Dave, like what Kanaya and Rose did. Seeing their faces when they do finally decide to ask will be fucking hilarious.

Plus, it sends a thrill through you to be in on some secret prank your friends didn't even know about. Like it’s just some secret thing to keep between the two of you.

So, the two of you talked like you usually do on the hike back. It was easy to transition from being friends to something more. There wasn’t much change to your relationship dynamic, you’re both just secure with the fact that if either of you wanted to, you can get close to the other without having an excuse or a reason to. No hidden meanings or ulterior motives, no frustration and terrible feelings while debating every little move either of you makes. You can kiss anytime and at any place if you wanted to. It’s just a nice overall feeling of security and assurance. You’re both still friends and you’ll both still do the same shit you do. It’s just those extra options are there if either of you wants to act on it. No need to hold anything back anymore.

The whole hike back went as expected. No one would’ve guessed that something has changed in your relationship. You’re just you, being you, and Dave’s just Dave, being himself. The only change is that the two of you aren’t so aware of the distance between the two of you and you’re always finding some excuse to be touching each other. Brushing the backs of your hands with one another as you walked, playfully shoving and poking to annoy the other, and holding onto each other when the hike gets rough and one of you almost loses their balance. Just little things like that.

Most of the time though, you just have a casual conversation in between your banter while Dave takes photos of the place. Or the two of you would just stay in comfortable silence, walking down the trail.

Eventually, your group finally makes it out of the hiking trail back to the beach you started from. Roxy and the chaperones (that honestly sounds like a cool as fuck high school band) lead you to a nearby restaurant to rest and dine in at.

You and Dave obviously sat together. And at some point after the meal and during desserts, where Dave ordered a tropically flavoured cake, he had cut a slice and asked you to open your mouth so he can feed you like a cliched lovey-dovey couple.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” You had told him.

“Just open your damn mouth, I’m trying to be nice here and giving you a piece of my dessert. You should actually feel fuckin honoured, Vantas. Not many get to eat off of the same fork as me.” He had retorted.

You rolled your eyes and bit into his fork, eating the piece of the cake he had offered. You noticed and see John and Jade whispering to each other as they so obviously looked your way, before sharing a look with Dave. They probably still think that the two of you are still pining after one another, and the secret inside joke between you and Dave makes you both laugh.

Your group finishes up lunch and Roxy happily takes your group to the beach you’ll be staying at for the rest of the afternoon.

Praia Pedra do Sino. It’s a quiet beach with not many people or other tourists, so that's probably why your chaperones chose it. The sand is white and the waters are a nice blue colour. It actually almost feels like you have the whole beach to yourself. Your whole group easily got settled in.

Your friends easily jump into the beach while some did a little exploring around the beach or simply laid out towels to hang out near the shore. You decided to have a walk around with Dave along the rocks. Jane had informed you that if you hit the big rocks with another rock, it makes a bell-like noise. That’s why the beach is called what it is. Sino means bell.

And so, the two of you decided to test that out and sure enough, it does sound like a bell. This interested Dave a lot and asked you to hit the rocks a couple of times while he recorded the sound with his phone. He says he could do something cool with it and you had told him you can’t wait to hear what it is. He smiled at you and almost shyly kisses you on the lips. It made you honest to god giggle and Dave tries his hardest to play off the blush on his cheeks. It’s beyond cute.

And so, the two of you continued to walk around until you hit the shore and decide to follow that instead. He holds your hand loosely, using the other to hold the camera up whenever he wanted to snap a photo of something.

“Can I post that picture I took of you back in Montevideo then?” He asks you at some point during your walk.

It’s your turn to turn a little red around the cheeks and ears, shrugging casually. “Sure, I guess. I don’t mind.”

He makes a sound of affirmation. He’s got his shades perched on his head this whole time since there aren’t very many people to hide from in the first place anyway. “Why did you want me to delete it, by the way? It’s a genuinely good photo. And if you’re having issues with how you look, dude. Let me just say, you are definitely fucking gorgeous.”

You bite your lip, averting your eyes in embarrassment and rubbing the back of your neck with a hand. “I mean… Part of it is that but…”

He makes a hum for you to continue on, but when you don’t he glances at you with a raised brow. “But what?”

“But, like…” You worry your lip, staring at the sand in front of you and trying to find the words without sounding so awkward. “Y’know, it’s just… It was kind of obvious with how I looked at you and I just… I didn’t like it.”

He continues to hold that eyebrow up. “Obvious, what? You’re gonna need to be more specific here, Kitkat, because I am definitely not following your train of thought.”

“Because I obviously looked at you like I liked you, okay?” You decide to just spit it out rapidly, pulling your hand from his and crossing your arms. He laughs at you.

“Shit, dude. You are too fucking adorable, what the actual fuck.” He says breathlessly, still laughing at you. You shove him away, but he keeps laughing at you.

Once he did calm down, he moves to walk close beside you again, snaking an arm around your shoulders since you refuse to hold his hand anymore. “Alright, I’ll admit, it did look pretty fucking obvious. That’s kinda the whole reason I liked it though.”

You scoff. “You’re an ass. I thought you were either a dense as fuck motherfucker for not noticing it or you did notice it but you chose to ignore it because you didn’t like me like that. I don’t know which one’s worse.”

He coos at you, pressing you against him and you make sounds of protest, trying to shove him away. “Oh my god. You honestly thought I didn’t like you? I’ve been dropping major fucking hints all throughout the trip. Maybe you’re the dense motherfucker, Karkat.”

You groaned and covered your face, dragging it down slowly. “Shut up. Just shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. I am done with this conversation forever and ever.”

He laughs at you and the two of you continue to talk as you walked down the beach. He keeps his arm looped around your shoulders until the two of you began to get near where the others were goofing around at and he settles for just sticking close to you, both hands on his camera to seem like he’s busy with it.

Roxy round you up to play some beach volleyball when the two of you got near. Although you don’t have a net, she says that you’ll make do without it. Jake and Dirk make a large rectangle in the sand to set boundaries and Jane puts you into teams while the chaperones will be the referee and counting the points.

Roxy says it’s not an actual tournament, you’ll just be playing various matches and that she’ll be mixing the teams up every now and again.

So your group plays that for a little while until everyone started to get bored with it. By this time, you all decided to grab some snacks and cool refreshments before going back out into the sun to have fun with the rest of the day.

Around four thirty though, your chaperones are moving to get you all cleaned up and packed up so you can make it back to the cruise ship before six.

As you’re all taking turns in the shower and packing up, the sun is just beginning to set in the horizon. The sight makes you reflect as you help the others get all of your shit back in the car. Dave’s still in line trying to take a shower so salty sea water and sand won’t stick to his skin uncomfortably.

Today felt longer than all of the other days. Maybe because of what happened throughout the day. It still makes you feel giddy and excited all over, replaying the day again and again in your head.

Eventually, you all hop back into the cars and drive back to the cruise ship. You and Dave sit together again with John in the third seat beside the two of you. Dave leans into you and rests his head on your shoulder during the trip, muttering under his breath at length about how tired he is. John is just giggling at the two of you and makes jokes about feeling like a third wheel between the two of you. Dave flips him off and you tell him to go fuck himself in front of a mirror.

Once you’re back in the cruise ship, you’re quick to hop into a hot shower so you can properly clean yourself. Afterwards, you go out to dinner and when you come back to your cabin, you’re getting your shit ready to go to sleep. Then there’s a knock on your door.

You open it and Dave smirks at you, douchebag shades back over his eyes. “Hey.”

You cross your arms and raise an eyebrow. “What the fuck are you doing here? It’s like, ten at night, Dave. You should be sleeping. We’re leaving early again tomorrow.”

“What, I can’t hang out with my boyfriend at night? I can call Mr. Vantas and promise him that I won’t do anything naughty with his son. Not yet at least.” He says in that familiar confident way he does, a passive sly smile on his face. You both hate it and love it at the same time.

You groan, pressing the heels of your hands into your eyes. “Fine. Whatever just get the fuck in here.” You take a step aside and he’s quick to slip into your room. You close the door after him.

He takes perch on your bed, setting up his laptop and camera while you sigh and grab the remote, taking a seat on the bed opposite of him.

“Oh my god, do you watch romcoms every night before you go to sleep?” He teases when you flick open the television and look through its catalogue for movies to watch. Your roll your eyes.

“No, shit stick. You look like you’re gonna get busy doing whatever on your laptop, so I’m going to occupy myself while you’re here for some fucking reason.”

“You hurt my feelings, Kitkat. I make the effort to come out here to enjoy your presence and you’d rather watch movies than talk to me.” He says in a mock whiny tone and you shoot him a glare. He pouts at you until you roll your eyes and abandon the remote to crawl over beside him.

“What the fuck are you even doing?” You ask him as he logs into his computer.

He tells you that he’s doing his daily routine of transferring the day’s photos and going through them for the best ones and picking a few to post in his instagram. He tells you the transferring process usually takes a long time and that it gets boring so he decided to come to hang out with you while it does that.

After he’s done everything he just explained to you, the two of you settle into the bed and put on a random movie and watched it together while waiting. He occasionally checks on his laptop every few minutes just to see its progress.

Once it’s done, he grabs his laptop and stays comfortably seated beside you while the movie continues to play. You watch him from the corner of your eye, trying to focus on the movie and failing. So you just rest your chin on his shoulder and look through the photos with him, not bothering to turn off the tv since the background noise was nice.

There were hilarious photos of your friends, like during the beach volleyball game where Dave caught a picture of John getting hit in the face with the ball while his arms flail about around him. Everyone’s varying expressions on the field were hilarious. Some looked worried like Rose and Kanaya while Jade and Terezi were pointing and laughing at him. You both agree that that one’s a keeper.

Once he’s gone through the photos, he opens up his instagram on his laptop and uploads a couple of photos there, putting a few appropriate hashtags on each one.

Then he gets to the photo he asked you about posting. He teases you and you smother him with a pillow and tell him that you’re going to wrangle the laptop out of his hands and delete it if he continues to make fun of you. He relents, and the two of you brainstorm for things to caption it with.

Dave wanted to show off your new relationship in his instagram so the girls would stop hitting on him. He showed you his dms and he scrolls through all the random female and male instagram accounts (his bio included the fact that he is indeed, bi) that have tried to talk to him and flirt with him over the years. And there’s a fuck ton of them, some even pretty recent to just a few hours ago.

The only problem with revealing the nature of your relationship on a photo is that your other friends will see it too since they follow Dave’s account as well. The two of you want to keep the joke going for a long as possible.

Eventually, the two of you settle with something simple and vague that some will hopefully get.

 _I asked him. He said yes_.


	30. First Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 44 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg thank you so much for the overwhelming positive response last chapter XD Have some more fluff guys

He kissed you good night when he left at twelve.

You have the best sleep that night.

So when Roxy comes knocking down your door at seven in the morning, you’re up and full of energy to face the day. The idea of going sightseeing with Dave is exciting to you. Especially in by far the most iconic place you’ve landed on out of this whole trip. Rio de Janeiro. You’re staying at the port for two days and you’re ready to do so much shit today. You know you won’t hit everything and you won’t get to enjoy certain things for very long, but you’re going to have as much fun as you can today.

Breakfast was especially lively that morning, your friends all buzzing with excitement and chatting about the day’s possible activities. So far, your chaperones have always kept your destinations a surprise and today is no exception.

You sit by Dave again and have your pancake breakfast while he talks your ear off with his usual rambling bullshit. You enjoy the sound of his voice though. Soft and deep, a certain modulated flow that’s pleasant to listen to.

Once breakfast is over and done with, you leave the cruise ship at eight in the morning. You have a guided tour of Rio de Janeiro’s top tourist attractions for the day.

Your tour guides (since you’re driving around in two vans, there’s another tour guide in the other car) drives you along to your first stop, all while you got to admire some beautiful views along the way there. Your tour guides talk to you about the various sights to see around the city as the drive went on. The first stop was at Corcovado Hill to see Rio de Janeiro’s crowning glory. The Christ the Redeemer Statue that stands above the city and an iconic figure around the place.

You drive through the lush forest of Tijuca, seeing various photogenic spots along the way. Then, your group hops off in Paineiras to take a train up to the actual Christ the Redeemer statue. Your tour guides, Izabel and Carlos, tells you that this is the fastest way up the mountain.

The ride through the train was pretty, your group getting to see more of the lively greenery that covered the mountain along with beautiful large granite rocks.

Once you’ve finally made it to the top, your tour guides tell you a bit about the history of the statue before letting your group roam freely around the place a bit to look around. The place was a big platform around where the statue stood, railings all around to keep anyone from falling over. There were also big lights aimed at the statue to light it up at night. There were a few people up there, but because it was so early in the morning, there’s actually not too many tourists around. Although it was fucking hot as shit up there. The cold wind that blows through because you’re so high up helps though.

Your group splinters off into various smaller groups as you walked around the place, snapping pictures and looking out towards the city and the Atlantic ocean beyond. From being so high up, you can see so many things. You can see the sprawling city and just how big it really is, along with other smaller mountains and islands just off the coast. There were a few fluffy looking clouds during that day and the sky was the bluest blue you’ve seen.

Everything was fucking gorgeous and the view really takes your breath away. You spend some time gawking at the whole thing, too amazed at the moment to worry too much about the height.

At some point, while you’re staring at the view and taking it all in, Dave sidles up behind you, resting his chin on your shoulder and snaking his arms around your torso. You can feel the camera on his neck poking at you and you try to elbow him away, although you only do it halfheartedly. Looking around, it looks like none of your friends are nearby.

“Are you scared of heights?” He asks you, and you finally chance a glance downward. Wrong choice, you see just how far of a fall it would be from where you stand and you feel momentarily dizzy from the sight.

“No.” You reply, pushing yourself off and away from the railing a bit so you’re not pressed up against it. You can hear his breathy laugh in your ear, and it still manages to make your gut squirm.

“Liar.” He says into your ear, kissing the outer shell of it. You whined in protest and he laughs again.

The two of you stand like that for a little while, just admiring the view you’ve been gifted with. “Have you taken photos yet?” You ask him after some time had passed.

“Yeah. I took a panoramic shot of the place.” He tells you and you shift around in his arms so you can lean back against the railing and face him. His hands stay on either side of you at the railing, trapping you in. Not that you mind that much.

You toy with the camera around his neck. “Wanna take a shot in front of the view here?”

He smirks at you, all smug and shit. You roll your eyes at him. “Do you just want an excuse to take my camera and take a picture of me?”

You peck him on the lips, something he was clearly not expecting since he flushes a light shade of red. You smirk, playing with the straps of the camera. “Yup. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do here. Are you gonna fuckin hand over the camera, or not?”

He chuckles and moves to take the camera off his neck and give it to you. “Alright, munchkin. Just make sure you don’t drop it.”

You raise an eyebrow at him and move to hold it over the edge. He sucks in a breath and makes a move to take it away from you but you safely bring in back and away from the edge with a laugh. “Call me munchkin again and I’m hurling this thing off of the edge.” You warn him as he looks relieved that his camera is out of danger.

“Yessir.” He tells you as you move away from the railing and take a few steps back so you can photograph him. He leans back on the railing with both elbows, shoulders relaxed and an easy smile on his face. Seeing him like this, unguarded without his facade, makes your heart clench and your lips curl into a smile.

You snap a shot of him like that.

Izabel and Carlos gather you up once your forty-five-minute sightseeing is done. You’ve still got plenty to see around the place.

Your group makes its way back down the mountain and stops briefly to get a view of the Maracanã Stadium and take a few photos. But soon, you’re on the road again to the next destination.

Next stop was at Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí, home of the Rio Carnival Sambadrome Parades. The place was a half a mile long runway where the parades walk down along. There were also bleachers for spectator viewing along the sides. Izabel and Carlos both talk animatedly about the festivities that happen around the place and how the whole procession goes. They also tell you a bit of history as to how everything came to be too.

After spending a little bit of time there and learning about the place, you move onto your next destination.

You next visit the cone-shaped Metropolitan Cathedral. The place was big and tall and Izabel tells you that the cathedral can house twenty thousand people inside.

Upon entering, you’re a little wonderstruck by the place. It had a tall ceiling that slanted to a point just like the cone shape that it is on the outside. The walls were covered with glass, but the four main cardinal points had beautiful stained glass windows decorating it from floor to ceiling. With the way the sun is angled at the moment, the left side is bathed the inside of the cathedral in colourful ways, giving off a mystical atmosphere around the place. The architecture was definitely impressive in this one.

Carlos and Izabel tell you about the history of the place and its significance. All while your friends took photos around the place, marvelling at all the beautiful art surrounding you.

After spending a little bit of time at the cathedral, you’re on your way to yet another location for the day.

Next is the Escadaria Selarón, a series of stairs made beautiful with dozens of colourful tiles, mirrors, and ceramics. All in all, it has about two thousand pieces decorating the steps.

When you get there, the steps are a vibrant colour with red tiles all along the walls and blues and yellows decorating along the actual steps. There are depictions of all sorts of things stuck on the walls and Izabel and Carlos walk you through the life of the artist who made the steps, Jorge Selarón. Tragically, he died way back in two thousand and thirteen. He used to always replace certain pieces with new ones and repair parts that have broken off.

Your group takes pictures along the steps, all of you marvelling at the sheer determination of the artist to make this piece of artwork. There were a couple more people milling about since it’s almost noon at this point and other tourists are going around the city and exploring its sights. The Selarón steps are one of the main attractions to see in Rio de Janeiro.

Izabel and Carlos talk at length to you about the history of the place while your group snaps photos around the place. You stay there until twelve before Izabel and Carlos gather you back up to go get lunch before continuing with the rest of your day tour trip.

You stop at a restaurant in Copacabana and spend approximately one hour there before you’re moving again to the last attraction that will take you the rest of the afternoon.

You arrive at Morro da Urca, the complex where you’ll be taking the gondola ride up to Sugarloaf mountain. Izabel and Carlos walk you through the process of getting onto the gondola ride with all your friends. They also tell you a bit about the place and the mountain before boarding. Each cable car can hold about sixty-five people with glass panes all around you so you can see the view. Your tour guides assure you of the safety of the whole ride.

From here, you can really see everything, even the Corcovado with the Christ the Redeemer Statue standing off in the distance. The view was stunning, but you had a hard time focusing on it when you’re well aware that you’re basically floating through the air in a cramped car with cable keeping you up. The idea of open-air beneath your feet makes your gut twist in ways you’d never admit. 

With your friends busy with the view all around them and the other people surrounding you, Dave easily slides his hand into yours and gives you a reassuring squeeze. You smile faintly at the gesture and squeeze his hand back, the fear of being so high up being alleviated and replaced with the rapid beating of your heart.

Dave takes pictures with one hand while he holds your hand in the other, fingers interlaced with one another. His hand is slightly calloused, yet soft, and you can feel a faint outline of a scar on his palm. You vaguely wonder about the story behind that one and decide that you’ll ask him about it later when you get the chance to and if you even remember to.

The ride goes just as smoothly you thought it would. Once you get to the summit, you stay for a little while to take in more of the view before it starts to make its return back to Morro da Urca and Dave continues to hold your hand through the process.

Once you’ve returned and stepped out safely from the cable car, Dave lets go of your hand to aim his camera at you. “How was the trip through the sky, Kitkat?” He asks you teasingly. You scowl.

Izabel and Carlos let your group unwind at Morro da Urca and enjoy the things they have there. Your group spends most of the free time around the snack bars and the little souvenir shop. Once again, you pick up a fridge magnet.

Eventually, though, Izabel and Carlos gather you up to bring you back to the cruise ship at four. But Roxy tells you that since the cruise ship is staying until tomorrow at ten at night, she says that you’ve still got a few things to check out even after the tour is done. She tells you with all of the main attractions done, you can get into the other little things Rio de Janeiro has to offer. There’s still a lot to do.

But for the next two hours, your chaperones bring you to downtown Rio, where malls and restaurants and other various little shops lay. A hub for all sorts of activities. And you’re free to roam around. Jane gives you all maps of downtown on your phones and gives you strict rules to meet up in front of some restaurant at six.

And so, your group excitedly split up to check out the various shops down the strip of road.

Dave smirks at you, and you raise an eyebrow at him. “Wanna go out with me?” He offers you his hand.

You snort and give him your hand. “What, are you taking me on an actual date now?”

“Yup.” He casually replies, popping his p.

You stare at him, little wide-eyed. “Wait, seriously? How the fuck do you even know where we’re going? Or are you just winging it right now?”

He keeps his smirk on as he tugs you along the sidewalk, glancing at his phone every now and again. “Give me some fucking credit, man. I have something planned that I’m pretty sure you’ll love as a first date spot. I asked Roxy about the day’s itinerary and she told me that we were having a full day guided tour before going to downtown Rio. I did some research last night after I went to your room.”

You bite your lip and stare at the ground, trying to fight back a grin. He’s just gonna be a smug bitch about it.

His camera is currently inside its small little shoulder bag hanging across his chest as he leads you down the road. You have no idea where he’s taking you, curiously looking at every shop you pass by. He makes a few turns and before long, like a ten to fifteen walk later, stops.

Livraria da travessa. Looking through the store window, you can see that it’s a bookstore. You eye him curiously and he just makes a motion with his head that tells you to go in. So you do, pushing your way inside and tugging him along.

It looks like a typical bookstore, with shelves around the place and a second floor to check out.

“It’s not as impressive as the other shit we’ve been to, but it has a built-in cafe at the second floor so I thought this would be a good place to chill out in for the evening. It’s nice and quiet, and it’s small and not crowded, unlike the places we’ve been to the whole day. Just a good time to hang around with each other.” He tells you as you take a few steps inside and examine everything.

You can feel the heat rising up from your neck and keep your back facing him to hide your big dopey smile. “What the actual fuck, Strider?” You mutter under your breath, covering your face and your cheeks.

He smiles at you, genuinely. “Do you like it?”

You groan and bury your face into his shirt. “Fuck yeah, I do. This is so fucking romantic, what the fuck. You falsely advertise yourself as a boyfriend, Strider. I honestly did not fucking expect this level of thought and consideration for  _ my _ tastes on a first date. I expected some generic dating shit from you, like the movies or something, not  _ this _ .”

He laughs and pulls you off of him, putting a hand around either of your wrists that’s still covering your face. “Can I can see your reaction?”

You groan and slowly drop your hands from your face, worrying your lip and staring at the ground. You can’t fucking face him, your face feels really hot that you’re certain a blush is obvious on you despite your darker complexion.

He laughs and squishes your cheeks together, forcing you to glare at him. “What the fuck are you doing.”

He grins and quickly pecks the tip of your nose before laughing again. Then, he lets go of your face and slides his hand into yours again. “Nothing, you just looked too cute like that. C’mon, let's go check out the place.”

He follows you around for the first few minutes, pretending to take interest in the shelves you’re looking at. It’s nice to at least see that he’s trying to be interested in your interests. Eventually, though, you see him leave you to check out another aisle. After looking through a few of the books, you picked up one, in particular, you’d like to read. Then, you go off to find him.

You find him down the aisle of manuals and how-tos and notice him flipping through a page of photography with a comprehensive guide into all things photography related. He perks up when you approach. 

“You done checking out the place?” He asks you and you nod your head. He smiles and takes your hand again, his other hand holding onto the book.

He takes you up to the second floor where the Bazzar cafe is located. Your try out a cup of cappuccino while Dave gets a regular cup of coffee with extra shots of milk added. You also grab a small slice of strawberry cheesecake for the both of you to share since you both know you’ll still need space for when dinner rolls around. You then take a seat at the corner with white tables and chat quietly for a little while sipping on your coffee and taking bites out of the cheesecake.

Eventually, the two of you fall silent and you both pick up your respective books to read for a little while to pass the time. At some point, you ask him about what he’s reading and he tells you. He returns the gesture by asking what you’re reading and you explain to him the basic synopsis of the story.

Time passes by like that between the two of you until he finishes his coffee and his book and whines to you about wanting your attention. You resolutely do not give it to him. So he starts kicking your foot under the table and smirks at you when you lift your eyes off the page to glare at him. Once he’s got your attention, he brings a forkful of cheesecake to your face and tells you to open your mouth. He is such a closeted sap, the stupid fucker.

You indulge him with little more than a protest about how stupid he is but he just smiles at you. So the rest of your time there is just him feeding you the rest of the cheesecake while you read your book.

Your phones light up on your table, reminding you that it’s six and you need to make your way to the restaurant Jane specified. You drink the last small bit of your drink before standing up and buying your book. Then, you’re out of the cafe/bookstore, holding his hand.

“So, did you have fun?” He asks you, a smug little smirk on his face. You roll your eyes and scoff.

“What the fuck does it look like to you, fuck face?”

He smiles and nudges you with his elbow. “C’mon, I wanna hear you say it. Tell me how great of a boyfriend I am, I need my ego inflated.”

You nudge him back, keeping your eyes on the sidewalk. You let yourself smile a small bit. “You did great. It was honestly a really nice first date.”

He squeezes your hand and you return the favour, walking down the street beside him.

You make it to dinner as one of the last people there, the other being John, Jade, and Vriska. Once you've gathered up, you head inside and have a nice meal for the night. All of your friends were chatting about where they went and the things they got all throughout, laughing and making jokes. You enjoyed the company thoroughly.

Once you’re all done, you finally head back to the cruise ship, too tired to do much more. You still haven’t properly rested from that trip in Ilhabela after all.

When you all get back to your cabins, you take a shower. As soon as you step out, sweater and sweatpants on, a towel around your shoulders to use to dry your hair, a knock comes at your door. You already know who it is before opening it.

“Dave. Why are you here again?”

He shrugs. He looks like he’s just had a shower of his own, since his hair is messier and fluffier than usual, probably from blow drying it. You sigh and step aside, letting him into your room.

“I just checked instagram and I thought you’d get a kick out of the comments on the last photo of you I uploaded. I thought I’d scroll through them with you.” He tells you, crawling onto your bed casually as if it was his own.

You raise a brow, taking the time to roughly dry your hair out as much as you can with the towel before joining in beside him.

_ Omg omg omg he looks so cute in this one!!  _

_ He said yes to what??? @ds_strider _

_ He is so fucking cute how can you not be dating that??? @ds_strider _

_ Are you guys finally together??? Did it actually happen?????? @ds_strider @krkt.vantas _

_ Has one of my ships actually fucking sailed? Are you guys canon??? @ds_strider _

_ Omg I can’t believe you guys actually got together after everyone assumed that you were already together!! Lol this sounds like a plot to a bad cliched fanfic. _

_ What did he say yes to????? @ds_strider @krkt.vantas _

And the comments continued on and on like that. There are about seven hundred and fifty comments on it already.

You cover your face and groan while Dave laughs, clearly enjoying the attention and trolling his own fans. When you look over his shoulder, you see him typing into the comments section.

_ Since when weren’t we dating? Me and my boo are tight <3 @krkt.vantas _

You hit him on the upside of the head and he continues to laugh. “Oh fuck no, Strider. Never call me any of that shit, in real life or on the net.”

You hop onto your own instagram account and type up a comment.

_ I am in no way shape or form associated with this man. He can go be the first ever person to fuck a shark and I wouldn’t give a single shit. _

_ Awe Karbby don't be like that. Don’t you wanna show the world our epic love story? @krkt.vantas _

_ What the fuck. _

“What the fuck." You say out loud and level Dave an incredulous look. “Kar _ baby? _ ”

Dave is still laughing, trying to stifle it with his hand. You hit him on the head again and he actually falls over laughing this time.

_ Please jump off a fucking cliff and die, you festering pile of horse excrement. @ds_strider _

More new comments come in.

_ Yup. Guys, these two are definitely dating.  _


	31. You Have The Stars In Your Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 45 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man sorry for the late upd8 I got kinda lazy, but here you guys go.

**DV POV**

* * *

 

She still doesn’t know.

It’s your second day of dating the guy you’ve had a crush on for three literal years, and your dear, kind sister who has dealt with all of your bullshit and tried to help you out as much as she can with pining after your crush, still doesn’t know.

You’ll take another slap to the face for the sake of the joke.

Plus, it seems like Karkat is having fun scheming behind your friends’ back after they apparently started a bet on when the two of you will get together. It’s your own little inside joke and you actually kind of like it. The slap is totally worth it.

Roxy took pity upon your group this morning and didn’t come knocking down your door until nine in the morning. She understands that constantly going outside and touring around the whole day for two days straight is tiring, even with a good night’s rest. She also understands that you’re all teenagers who don’t ever go to bed before twelve. She’s an angel.

So breakfast rolls around and you spend some time with your longtime pals, Jade and John. They talk your ear off and you try to follow their wacky train of thought as much as you can. But you’re a bit distracted. Karkat has always been very distracting to you, but now more so than ever before. New relationship jitters are still in your system and you just want to hang around him and touch him all the time since you’ve been holding yourself back for a whole year.

It still baffles you that you’re finally able to do things you’ve wanted to do with him and that he feels the same towards you. You thought you had zero fucking chance at all at the beginning of the trip because you knew you’re on his list of disliked people in your friend group. That’s mostly your own fault for clashing with the guy at the start of freshman year and you thought you hated the guy.

You wanted to do something about your feelings before the end of high school though because you’ve always got a sickening feeling that you’ll really regret it for the rest of your life. You’re glad you took the chance.

Karkat’s sitting by Rose and Kanaya today, at the far end of the table opposite to you. It’s easy enough to physically make your body look like you’re paying attention to your friends but have your eyes hover over to him every now and again. You’ve mastered all the tricks and perks of wearing sunglasses like a douchebag all the time, twenty-four seven.

Every time he laughs, you take a sip of your juice to hide your little smiles. You really like seeing him happy, something that’s happening quite often ever since the trip started. He’s always been a big grump all throughout high school and whenever your friends look particularly exasperated in the mornings or just look like they’re done with school in general, there’s an inside joke about imitating the iconic ‘Vantas resting bitch face’. He was not fond of that title, as you can expect.

After you’ve all finished breakfast, Roxy and the chaperones (seriously Roxy is the type of person who would make a band called that if given the idea. You’ve made sure to keep your mouth shut about it) take you out into the streets of Rio de Janeiro once again at ten in the morning.

She takes you to an aquarium in AquaRio early in the morning just as the place opened. So when you all went in, there were very few people around the place and you got to see the exhibits easily. Apparently, as the day goes on, there will be more and more people coming in and it’ll be crowded. But for now, your group got to roam around relatively peacefully with lots of space.

The only downside to the aquarium is almost empty of tourists is that you can’t touch Karkat without all of your friends seeing it. So instead, you busy your hands a lot by holding the camera and taking shots of the fish in the exhibits.

One of the first things you see upon entering the entrance hall is a giant whale carcass, the bones suspended in the air by steel cables. Your group was already excited to see the whole place after seeing that.

Feferi and Eridan seemed to be the ones very into the aquarium. They both excitedly talked to each other about the fishes, dragging the rest of your friends around and loudly reading the little plaques that describe the fish featured in the tanks to your group. It was honestly kind of endearing to see. You snapped a couple candid photos of them pointing at the fish with big smiles on their faces.

You also capture a lot of shots of Karkat, like you usually do, but you’re still waiting for that moment to take the perfect picture of him as you have in past destinations.

In the past two hours, your group moves slowly around the aquarium and its various exhibits. More crowds come in like you were told by the ticket master, but since you’ve seen most of the first few exhibits, you’ve still got the last few ones all to yourselves.

At the second floor is where the aquarium’s main attraction; the tunnel passing. It’s basically a tunnel-like space with the fish tank conforming to its shape to give the illusion of actually being underwater with the rest of the fishes. There was a particular moment when your friends are excitedly entering the tunnel and you found a perfect opportunity to take the perfect photo, the moment you’ve been waiting for.

You’re lagging behind the group and as Karkat was entering the main tank, you find that perfect opportunity. You get on your knees, aim your camera portrait-wise, and snap a shot.

Once you get back up and check the photo, you’re pleased with the result. It’s a picture of some of your friends’ silhouettes entering the tank, the bright blue of the water making them appear more like shadows. And Karkat just happens to be walking right in the middle of the walkway under the arch, head tilted a bit to look around. Again, the bright blue of the tank makes for a great contrast around his silhouette, sweater sleeves rolled up and hands in his pocket, a relaxed stance mid-step. You took a full body shot this time.

When you catch up with him, you don’t show him your shot. You want to keep the photos a surprise at the end in your instagram account. He asks you why you’re weirdly happy and you casually shrug it off as you just enjoying the place and enjoying yourself. He doesn’t question you further and the two of you walk side by side, making light conversation as you continued to snap photos of the place.

You tour around the rest of the exhibit before finally finishing at approximately around twelve in the afternoon. Which is perfect because your chaperones take you out to lunch.

The eating portion of the day goes as it normally does, and soon, Roxy and the chaperones (seriously it’s got a nice fucking ring to it what the fuck) take you out to your next destination.

Since you apparently don’t have much time in between after having lunch and the guided tour your chaperones booked you for, they take you to the Carioca Aqueduct, another cool touristy spot perfect for a few photo ops. You’re just pretty much there to kill some time before you make it to your next real exploration of things to do in Rio de Janeiro.

So for a little while, your group walks around the place a bit and takes pictures around the place. You spend about fifteen to twenty minutes there, just chilling out before Roxy has you packing up again to leave.

The next real stop is at Rio de Janeiro’s botanical gardens with a proper guided tour that lasts about three hours and a half. Meaning you’ll end at around five.

You start out the tour and see beautiful flora and fauna, but your tour guide was a real fucking bore. She didn’t sound at all interested in the shit she was spouting off and she looked about ready to be done with her job already. It was easy for you to tune out her droning on about the plants featured in the garden. Instead, you decide to chat with Karkat, who also seems pretty bored with the tour.

“How come you let me take pictures of you now? You used to be vehemently against me taking pictures of you.” You casually, aiming your camera at him and snapping a picture of him to prove your point. He doesn’t glare or scowl or tries to hide his face anymore. He mostly just looks indifferent, but you wonder if he’ll smile for you again if you ask him to.

He shrugs. “I fucking know. I guess… I guess I just don’t mind it anymore when it’s you taking the photos? I mean…” He pauses and he does this thing where he looks away from you to seem like he’s busy looking at the view around him, when he’s actually feeling embarrassed and doesn’t want you to see his face. It’s kind of adorable. “I don’t know. The pictures you take doesn’t make me want to hate myself so much. I actually… Like most of the ones I’m in.”

You can’t help the smile that creeps up on your face. You direct your attention to your camera because you might actually just kiss him right there and then. “Really?”

You hear him heave a sigh and roll his eyes at you once he's felt comfortable again to show his face. “That’s what I just said, dumbass. I’m not repeating myself, your ego’s too fucking bloated. I’ve been giving you too many compliments lately.”

You bite the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from grinning. Since when did it become so hard for you to control the emotions that show on your face? “Huh. That’s cool, I guess.” You say under your breath. “Well, I’m glad that you trust me with this.”

He smiles faintly without looking at you. The two of you continue your walk around the garden.

The hours tick by and you got to see a pond that houses the biggest water lilies, which was sort of cool. But other than that, there wasn’t really much to note about the botanical garden. It’s similar to all the other ones you’ve been to.

By five, Roxy apologizes to you in advance but tells you that you’ll only have snacks at the usual time you have dinner at because she and the chaperones planned for you to go back up to the Christ the Redeemer Statue at night before it closes at seven. She tells you that the view from up there during the night and the day are vastly different. The difference really is like _night and day_. Badum tssssss.

Nobody laughed at that joke.

So your group ate some snacks on your way there and you arrive around six. And by the time you climbed back up the Statue, you’ve only got a few more minutes there to enjoy the night time view before you’re ushered out for closing time.

Seems like a few other tourists got the same idea as you as there was a few of them around there too.

It’s one of the first times you’ve really gotten to see a city at night during your whole trip. Mostly because you ship usually leaves before six or seven, but this is definitely a sight that was worth coming back here to take some pictures.

You snap another panoramic shot of the place, taking in the glittering lights and the way the whole city just lights up the place at night. A glance over at Karkat makes you smile since he seems to be at peace in this place with the gorgeous view.

You aim the camera at him and he tilts his head slightly your way and you snap a quick photo, taking the shot before his peaceful expression turns into a questioning one as he looks at you.

You check the photo out on the screen and is definitely satisfied with the way it turned out.

Karkat has his cheek resting on a hand while the other is just resting against the railing, his whole body leaning into it in a relaxed manner. He’s got a lazy expression on, eyes half-lidded, mouth slightly agape. The background had that nice bokeh effect, highlighting his features nicely. His grey eyes reflected silver with all the lights and it vaguely gives you a feeling of looking at the galaxy. It looks like he’s got the stars in his eyes.

He’s so fucking gorgeous and he doesn’t even know it. You want him to see it, you want him to know the way you look at him and how fucking breathtakingly beautiful he is. Shit, you are too fucking in love with this short, grumpy goblin.

But you can’t tell him that yet. It’s too early. But really, the way he makes you feel, for so fucking long, it could only be one thing. The way he makes your heart race and your gut tighten in the best and worst possible ways, it could only ever be one thing.

You’re in love with him. And you think you will be for a long while. You have for two years now. What’s another couple more?

Something about being with him just feels so right. Every time you’re with him, it’s just that feeling of relief after you’ve found something important that you’ve lost for a long time. Like, _finally. I’ve found you again_. You’re not completely sure why ‘again’ seems like an appropriate thing to add, but it just feels right, like everything about him feels right. You’ve stopped questioning it a long time ago.

“Can I see the photo?” His voice breaks through your hazy reverie, and he’s crossing his arms and he’s fully facing you now.

You smirk. “You’ll just have to find out just like the rest of my followers on instagram.”

He scoffs at you and rolls his eyes. But before he can turn away from you, your hand lifts up to touch his face. He stops and gives you a questioning look, but you just keep silent, brushing away the hair from his eyes and admiring his face. You flick up your shades above your head to better appreciate it without the dark tint that constantly covers your vision.

“... Dave?”

“You’re beautiful, y’know.” You tell him. You tell him because he needs to know.

His brows knit together, forming a cute little crease above his nose. He opens his mouth and you know he’s about to argue you on that but you cut him off before he can even say a single syllable out. “You’re not allowed to argue. It isn’t up for debate. It’s not a theory, it’s a scientific fact. You’re beautiful.”

He looks away from you, but because you’re cupping his face with one hand, he can’t turn away. You can feel his skin heat up under your touch and your heart skips a beat.

“... Where’s this suddenly coming from?” He asks you quietly, almost timidly and Karkat does not do shy. You decide then that you like it on him.

“Just a thought that popped into my head.” You answer with a shrug, pulling away, tucking a hair behind his ear in the process. “I thought you needed to hear it.”

He bites his lip and looks out at the twinkling city below you, playing absentmindedly with the fabric of his sweater.

He stays quiet for the rest of the trip there, all the way until you get back into the car to head back to the ship. You’re two hours early, the ship doesn’t sail for the seas again until ten.

You don’t hang out with him this night, and just knocked on his door and gave him a good night kiss, as you’ve done for the past two days. Of course, you made sure that there’s nobody around to see it.

He calls you his usual insults, but he does it with a smile and it still makes your stomach flutter.

You return back to your cabin and upload the photos you’ve taken for the past two days onto your instagram account.


	32. Sweet Of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 46 - Buzios, Brazil

He posted two different photos last night and the things he said repeat itself over and over inside your head. It gives you the same thrill every time you remember it. And then you replay the date he took you on in Rio de Janeiro and your heart starts racing and it feels like there are butterflies that’s burst in your stomach. You wonder if the feelings will stay this potent whenever you’re with him.

But right now, you’ll enjoy the jolt of excitement that goes through you in the morning when you see him and you remember that he’s yours to keep

Roxy has once again started waking you up at seven in the morning and you have your early morning breakfast like you usually do.

When you’re out of the ship, your chaperones explain to you that today is a mostly chill day where you can just relax in the beach and take a rest from the hustle and bustle you’ve been doing for the last three days in Ilhabela and Rio de Janeiro. So they take you to Joao Fernandinho Beach where you’ll be spending most of the day.

The place was a beach and the sand was sandy white and the waters were a clear blue like you expected. This one is a more crowded beach, but you find a spot to set up and with a section of the beach to play around in.

You all set down blankets and get everything nice and set up, with little umbrellas stuck onto the sand to shade you a bit from the sun. Then, your friends take off their clothes, swimsuits underneath, and runs down to the beach. Some take a walk, some play in the sand, some play in the water, some stay behind onto the little base you’ve created with several colourful umbrellas surrounding similarly colourful blankets.

Those people are solely you and Dave, who you’ve learned isn’t actually very fond of beaches.

“I find them nice and a good place to chill out in and take pretty pictures of. But I’ve never been into taking off my shirt or getting wet in general. Plus, it’s a fucking hassle once you are done swimming, having to get cleaned and dry and getting rid off all the sand in your body.” He tells you as he gets settled into the sheets underneath an umbrella to shade him from the sun. He’s really tanned throughout the trip, but you think it suits him.

You settled down beside him, leaning your back against his shoulder. “No chance of me getting to see you shirtless, then?” You had flirted, the words popping into your head and out your mouth the next second.

You feel him laugh behind you as he takes your hand into his. “You have to pay to see the national treasure, Kitkat. I don’t think you’re rich enough to afford it, so I’ll give you a fifty percent discount. The exhibit is located back in the cruise ship, inside your cabin.”

“You’re fucking ridiculous, Dave.” You scoff, loosely interlacing your fingers with his.

“It’s a take it or leaves it deal, Kitkat. Limited time offer only.” He pulls his sunglasses down his nose just enough so he can wink at you. You find yourself thoroughly enjoying this line of conversation.

“Fine, I’ll take it. Do you take payments in the form of pants?” You shoot back and laugh at the way his cheeks light up a faint red colour. He clearly wasn’t expecting you to accept it, much less say _that_.

But he rolls with it. “Actually, if you plan on paying with your jeans, the boxers have to come with it before we can accept your offer.”

You snort. “Alright then, it’s gonna have to be a no from me. My boxers are worth more than just seeing you shirtless. You’re gonna have to try harder than that, you fucking con artist.”

He laughs. “Alright, let me make you a different deal.” He tells you, leaning into your ear to whisper. “You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”

You bite your lip, feeling your face heat up as his voice sends shivers down your spine, your fingers unintentionally tightening around his. He laughs quietly, clearly knowing he’s one-upped you.

He wins this round.

“How far have you ever even gone with someone before?” You ask instead, genuinely curious. With the position you’re in, it’s easy to avoid looking at him. You still feel embarrassed about the whole conversation that just went down.

He makes a humming noise of contemplation for a moment. “Shirtless make-outs is really the farthest I’ve gotten with anybody. That was with Terezi, five months into our relationship, literal days just before we broke up. What about you? Have you gotten far with anybody before?”

You bite your lip, feeling embarrassed again. “I… Actually haven’t even made out with anyone before you. Like I told you, I basically haven’t really dated anyone, and I’m not sure if Terezi even counts.”

He raised a brow at you, a smirk playing on his lips. “Seriously? You could’ve fooled me. Congratulations, Karkat. I think we just found out that you’re a naturally good kisser.”

You groan, burying your face into one hand. The embarrassment isn’t going away any time soon. “Please don’t say shit like that, it’s embarrassing as fuck.”

He nudges you with his shoulder. “What? It’s a compliment. Ten out of ten would kiss again.”

You slowly drag your hand down your face. “I hate you so much.”

“So, you’re a virgin then?” He asks you and you glare daggers at him.

“No, I’ve fucked every single one of our friends.” You drawl sarcastically. “Of course I’m a fucking virgin, jackass. And don’t say it like you aren’t one either. You just admitted that you’ve never gone all the way with anyone.”

He hums in agreement. “Touché, Vantas.”

“I have a question though.” You start.

“Shoot it, robin hood.”

You shift from your current sitting position to face him, momentarily untangling your hands from each other before taking his hand into yours again. “You said you’ve liked someone before. And for a long time is what you told me. Does that mean you went into relationships knowing you liked someone else…?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “No? Not really? I mean, I didn’t realize it until sometime in sophomore year. I guess at the time, I dated other people who I also liked at the time, not really realizing or maybe subconsciously denying that crush?”

“That was me… Right…?” You ask, biting your lip.

He flushes again, his turn to be embarrassed. “Yeah. I didn’t realize it until much later, and by that time it was pretty clear that you hated my guts and I didn’t know how to fix that. So I just kept my indifferent facade towards you. I didn’t know what to do with my… ‘Feelings’ since you now know why I’m absolute shit at them. I didn’t know how to approach you and at least make you like me as a friend.”

You don’t know why, but this conversation about feelings is making you both excited and anxious. Excited because the idea of him liking you way before you liked him still seems like an impossibility to you. Anxious, because you have no idea why he would ever have a typical crush from afar on someone like you. “For how long have you liked me?”

“Um… I think I’ve liked you since I met you, I just never realized it. Actually, I was jealous of you at some point before I realized that the things I was jealous about were actually things I really admired about you.”

You bite your lip, staring down at the colourful pattern of the blanket beneath you. “Why?”

You watch his other hand move to rest on top of yours that are already intertwined with his other hand. “Because you were bold, caring, smart, and compassionate. You didn’t give a shit about what anybody thought of you and you weren’t afraid to state your own opinions and stand by them. You care about all of your friends deeply and you show it in your weird, endearing assholeish way, always there to help and to listen. Because you made fast friends with Jade and Rose even if you just met them in high school, and you just generally made friends easily and you have so many of them now. You always made your presence known wherever you are, being loud and honest. Your personality is fucking magnetic, dude. You weren’t afraid to be who you are, despite thinking that you’re not much at all. Because you are. There are so many good things about you that I can list.”

You stare at him a bit wide-eyed, not expecting that kind of answer. Honestly, you weren’t sure what you were expecting. Just not this.

Your heart is threatening to beat right out of your ribcage and there’s this strange tingling sensation all over your body, a strange warmth spreading from your chest to everywhere else.

“Oh shit, fuck. Fuck, okay. Are you okay? I’m sorry, did I break you?” He rambles on, wiping a tear from the corner of your eyes. You didn’t even realize it, your brain still trying to process everything. Just how much he cares about you. It’s only now sinking in that this is actually happening right now. You’re not dreaming, this isn’t some fever dream you’ve made up in your own head. Because you don’t think you can list that many good things about yourself on your own.

This is actually happening. You actually have a really caring and perfect boyfriend and he took you on a first date in _Rio de Janeiro_. Your first kiss happened behind a fucking _waterfall_ in _Ilhabela_. This shit sounds like something that only happens in people’s fantasies, but you’re actually living it. You’re living it right now and it’s only sinking into your mind right now. The reality of it all.

It isn’t processing properly in your brain. But you manage to make your lips move and force out words out of your throat. “Yeah. I’m fine, I just.” You sniffle, wiping away at your face. “I didn’t expect that.”

He smiles sheepishly at you, taking both of your hands. “I’ve been wanting to be able to tell you those things for a long while now.”

He pulls you towards him slowly and you let yourself lean in, close your eyes, and feel his lips on yours. He kisses you softly, chaste but long, both hands intertwining with your own. It’s warm and sweet and safe and you have no idea about how much time has passed, but you find that you don’t really care about that.

When he does finally pull away, he flips his shades onto his head to properly see you. Seeing his eyes solidifies his words and they sit heavy on your chest, but you don’t feel weighed down by them. You feel grounded, keeping your mind from floating away into your own insecurities too much like it always does.

You bury your face into his shoulder, and he slips one of his hands around you, soothingly patting your back. You just close your eyes and relax, taking in the comfortable summer heat and the scent of him filling your senses. He smells faintly of apples and fresh soap.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

When your friends finally come back to home base, you and Dave have shifted into your backs and just talking about whatever came into your minds. They seemed pretty tired out and hungry for lunch. It’s a little past twelve already and you have to admit, you are getting pretty hungry too.

Roxy tells you that you’ll be going to Rua das Pedras, the shopping hub in Buzios. So your group gets all redressed and you go out to have some lunch before taking some time to do a bit of shopping.

You have some fish at a restaurant and afterwards, your chaperones lets you have free roam around the place. You don’t have anything else to do for the rest of the day so your chaperones tell you to just take the time to relax and take some nice walks and check out and chill out in a local cafe. It’s a lazy day of being a tourist for today.

And so, your group splits up into groups again as you usually do. This time, Terezi and Sollux tag along with the both of you, and you quietly find it hilarious how they actively try to push you and Dave together since they still don’t know the current state of your relationship with him. Both you and Dave have to catch yourselves from bursting out laughing at your own stupid inside joke between each other.

The shopping was fun and you got to collect a couple more nicknacks and souvenirs. You actually did end up having a lot of fun with Sollux and Terezi’s company. The banter between you four is great.

The day stretches on and after your group has done a bit of shopping, some of you decided to take a walk in the nearby beach or just take a look around the scenery. You walked around town with Dave for a little while, just talking and bantering like you always do.

Eventually, when it hits four in the afternoon and the sun is beginning to set over the horizon again, Roxy and the chaperones take you back into the car to head back to the cruise ship.

Today felt like a shorter day than usual. But you’ve slotted in new heart-racing memories into your brain and you can’t help but freak out and gush about to _someone_. So you called your dad.

You haven’t updated him in the last few days because Dave has been distracting you, but now that you’ve got the time, you call your father to tell him what’s happened recently.

You tell him everything like you always you do, and he tells you that he’s happy to hear you being so happy about this. He tells you he wants to meet Dave when you get back from the cruise ship and you playfully tell him, no, not wanting him to embarrass you in front of him.

The two of you talk for a little while before a knock comes at your door. You tell him a quick goodbye before getting the door. You already know who it is and why.

“Dave.” You greet, crossing your arms.

“Karkat.” He greets back, leaning against your doorframe.

You roll your eyes and he smirks at you. “Let’s just fucking get on with this, I need my sleep.”

He chuckles. “Chill, babe. We’re not going anywhere for tomorrow.”

“I still want a full ten-hour sleep without having to wake up at noon, Strider.” You huff.

He grins and pushes himself off the doorframe and opens his arms to you. “Alright, Alright. I get it. Just come here then.”

Again, you roll your eyes but slide your arms around his shoulder while his slide around your waist. He pulls you in, and you automatically close your eyes, kissing him back when he kisses you.

He licks your lower lip and it’s a little more than usual, but you allow him inside, parting your lips so he can kiss you deeper. Your arms around him tighten a bit, unable to keep back a breathless gasp. He’s warm and you can taste mint on his tongue, probably from the toothpaste.

It doesn’t last very long like it did the last time you kissed him like that. But it was definitely enough to put you in an almost drug-like state of euphoria.

He makes a show of licking his lips afterwards and you glare at him for it. Then, he just laughs quietly at you, leaving a peck on your forehead. “Good night, Karkat.” He tells you, slowly pulling away. You do the same.

“Yeah. Good night.” You reply back, cheeks warm and tone slightly breathless. You swallow thickly.

“Sweet dreams.” He tells you as he leaves your door, opening his cabin door beside your own. You lazily wave him goodbye.

“You too.”

Once you’ve closed the door behind you, you feel a sense of lethargy through your body. A good kind of tired.

You close off your lights and go to bed, falling into the realm of sleep easily.

You dream of blankets stuck in the ceiling and fairy lights hanging around them, like stars in the night. You dream of wisteria scented candles lit around the dark room, sweet and faint on your nose. You dream of soft cushions and arms around you in an embrace, keeping you safe and warm.

You feel like nothing wrong could ever happen. And the feeling persists when you wake up the next morning, the scent of wisteria stuck in the back of your mind.


	33. The Cat's Out Of The Bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 47 - At Sea

It’s nine by the time you get up, which isn’t bad.

You have breakfast with Aradia, John, Eridan and Sollux. A strange combination of people from your friend group, but you had a lot of fun either way.

Once you’ve finished that, you head back to the library to return the books you got except for the one you and Dave are still currently reading. You bought a lot of books and the two of you can just pick from there when you’ve finished your current book.

Stridouche ♡ (Dave)  
  
hey where are you  
  
 AT THE LIBRARY, RETURNING BOOKS AGAIN.  
  
cool  
  
did you return the book we were reading  
  
 NO. WHY THE FUCK WOULD I DO THAT IF WE'RE STILL READING THROUGH IT?  
  
just a question damn  
  
meet me up at the lounge in the top deck?  
  
bring the book  
  
 ALRIGHT, SHIT SPONGE. I'LL SEE YOU IN A BIT.  
  
<3

 

 

 

 

 

You flushed at the last message and bite your lip. You hesitate before sending the message, feeling stupidly embarrassed about it even if you have no reason to be. He’s your _boyfriend_ for christ's sake, you're allowed to indulge in typical cheesy gestures of affection.

 <3

And so, you meet with Dave at the lounge and join him on one of the leather seats. He pockets his phone that he was fiddling with and smiles at you. You chat with him for a bit, before he asks you to read to him.

The two of you lounge around the lounge area, with you reading to him. There’s not much happening around the ship today so the two of you just plan to laze around the whole day.

He leans against you, his head on your shoulder as you read to him and you had slipped your hand behind the couch to play with his hair while you turned the pages with your other hand. It makes you happy that you can just do this with him now without all the frustration of wanting to be physically affectionate with him but not being able to. Now you can and you plan to abuse it.

You have no idea how long the two of you spent your time just hanging around like this when you hear a shout from behind you.

“JUST DATE ALREADY!”

You tense up the sudden loud noise and shift so you can look behind you. Dave does the same, lifting his head from your shoulder to look behind the couch. John and Jade were giggling to themselves while Kanaya crossed her arms and looked exasperated with the two.

Dave shares a look with you before flicking his shades up, a devilish grin on his face and mischief twinkling in his eyes. You raise a brow at him.

He turns to look back at the three by the entrance to the outside of the top deck, John still seemingly laughing too hard and snorting to himself as if what he said was very original and clever. Which it really wasn't. Opposite of it actually.

“Who said we weren’t already?” Dave shouts back as a reply and you stare at him with wide eyes. Then, you look back at Jade and John and Kanaya and immediately burst out laughing at their reactions.

Kanaya looks fucking horrified that she didn’t know, John's eyes are blown wide behind his glasses, and Jade looks like she just dropped her jaw on the fucking floor. Dave snickers beside you and you punch him on the shoulder playfully. “You fucking douchebag!”

He covers his mouth with a hand, stifling his laughter. “What can I say? It’s just in my DNA, man. Can’t stop the douchebaggery. Don’t act like you don’t like it.”

You roll your eyes and he leans in to press his lips to yours, and you accept it, kissing him back softly. It was an irrefutable proof of his claim and you're more than happy to play along. Honestly, you’re having too much fucking fun fucking around with your friends right now and you just want to push shit forward as far as it can go.

It was just a short and chaste kiss and the two of you are smiling at each other before looking back. All three still look frozen in fucking place and it’s fucking hilarious. Dave seems to have the same idea as you because he pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of it.

“Fuck off, we’re busy!” You cup your hands around your mouth and shout before shifting back to your original position, trying to find the paragraph you left off on.

You hear loud footsteps from behind you though, and roll your eyes despite the smile displayed on your lips.

Jade sits beside Dave and John pulls up a chair beside all of you while Kanaya takes her perch on your side. And the barrage of questions begins.

“You guys are dating?!”

“Since when???”

“Holy fucking shit why didn’t either of you tell us?!?”

The two of you try your best not to burst out laughing again and opt for just snickering quietly. Kanaya does not look amused with you though, arms crossed and shoulders tense in a disapproving motherly fashion. “Why didn’t you tell me, Karkat?” She questions, sounding genuinely hurt, and you instantly feel guilty for laughing.

“Aradia told me there was a secret bet with all the rest of our friends happening behind both of our backs about when me and Strider will apparently ‘get together’, so we decided to troll you back with a secret of our own.” You explain, making quotation marks around the word ‘get together’ with your hands.

Jade and John make a similar pouting expression. “You guys are mean. We would’ve thrown a celebration for you guys!” John chirps happily.

“That’s exactly what we don’t want you doing, John.” Dave has put his shades back on his face, and with the motion of his head, you know he’s rolling his eye at the buck-toothed boy.

“Tell us though! When did the two of you finally get together?!” Jade questions, her voice sounding elated. She looks like she’s about ready to jump up and down in joy.

“Since back in Ilhabela.” Both you and Dave reply at the same time. You look at him and he looks back at you, and you both smile. Jade lets out a delighted squeal like she’s a little five years old at Christmas day who got the Disney Ariel barbie she’s been wanting for forever.

“Oh my god, since then?! How did we not fucking notice?!” John whines, covering his face and dragging it down his face.

“Yeah, dude. How didn’t you notice? We were hanging around each other pretty closely, closer than usual, all during our trip to Rio de Janeiro. We weren’t actually trying very hard to hide it. We kept splintering from the group together with just the two of us. How _didn’t_ you notice?” Dave tells them, and you fight back a smile by biting your lip.

John groans while Jade simply looks like she’s got a thousand questions ready to flood out from her mouth. “So, how did the two of you actually get together?!”

Dave rubs the back of his neck and you can see a faint blush on his face. You snicker. “He, um. He kissed behind the waterfall back in Cachoeira do Gato.”

Jade claps her hands excitedly.

“Did I ever tell you that your brother actually told me the night before to make the first move since you apparently won’t?” You tell him, smiling smugly. He bites his lip, the red tint becoming a bit more visible. You decide that you like flustering Dave.

Jade makes even more loud, high pitched noises and she and John go back and forth in asking Dave about all of the details. You let him deal with those two and turn to Kanaya, who looks like she’s calmed down a bit.

“So, you finally did it?” She asks, and you cover your face with your hands.

“Yeah. I finally did it.” You mutter in reply. When you peak at her from your fingers, you instantly regret getting to see her with her smug face on. You groaned. “Just get on with it, Maryam. Just say it and put me out of my misery.”

“I told you so.” She says, an air of prim and properness in her voice. You groaned again. Then, you feel a comforting hand on your shoulder. “But really though, I’m glad. I’m happy that you’re happy.

You pull your hands away from your face and she’s smiling you with the brightest smile you’ve seen and she looks like a proud soccer mom consoling her kid after losing a soccer game and telling little Timmy that he’s still the best in his momma’s eyes.

What the fuck. What the actual fuck was that fucking rambling bullshit. Dear god, you fucking hope you aren’t picking up the habit of making terrible analogies from Strider.

Your face feels warmer than before and Kanaya laughs at you, patting your back comfortingly.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The two of you had been playing in the arcade once Jade, John, and Kanaya finally left the both of you. By then, you both decided that the mood was sorta ruined and neither of you felt like reading anymore. So Dave asks you out on another date, to the arcade this time around, since you told him you haven’t gone there yet this whole trip.

So the two of you are there now, shoving each other while playing Dance Dance Revolution. The fucker tried to get you off the game when you were finally winning and the two of you have been playing dirty since then.

But you’re having a lot of fun, something you didn’t really expect since arcades were never really your thing. But Dave shows you around, teaches you the ropes to some games and the two of you compete when you’ve got the hang of it. Like at some point, you played the basketball hoops and he guides you from behind, correcting your form before you shoot. Smooth motherfucker used it as an excuse to get close and hug you from behind while you shot some hoops.

Turns out, you’re pretty fucking good at some of them. You’ve beaten him at Tekken a couple of times, much to his dismay after trash talking to you about how good he is at it since he was ten. You’ve also beaten him at air hockey and he bitched about it until you gave him a peck on the cheek as a ‘consolation prize’. And apparently, since he didn’t learn that you’re just naturally good at fighting games, he versus you in street fighter. You kicked his ass again.

The two of you try a few more games, like a few racing games where you physically get on a replica of a motorcycle and lean side to side to avoid obstacles, shooter games, both against each other and teaming up with one another, and even games like pinball and whack a mole.

You spend way too much time in whack a mole, trying to get arcade tickets. It’s one of the easier ones to collect arcade tickets from.

He gets you a shitty plastic power rangers ring in red with the tickets you earned throughout the day.

The two of you just finished another round with the DDR when you notice a short blonde haired girl weaving her way through the crowd, clearly set on the two of you. Rose looks fucking pissed, too, and you’re wondering what for. You have a sneaking suspicion it’s something Dave has done. What though you're not completely sure.

And your theories are proved to be correct when she marches up to both of you, and Dave barely gets out a greeting before getting slapped across the face, his shades actually falling off in the process. You just stare in shock for a bit, before biting your lip to keep from laughing.

“Fuck. I fuckin knew this was gonna happen why the fuck did I ever think this was worth it.” He groans, bending down to pick up his shades while Rose glared at him, hands on her hips.

“Did you now? You know why you deserved that slap, then?” Rose muses as Dave gets up, slipping on his shades, all while he clutched the side of his cheek where he’d been slapped.

“Yes, Rose. Look, I thought it was a fucking hilarious idea at the time, damn. Plus, Karkat looked like he was enjoying it so I kept it up.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t fucking drag me into shit I don’t even know about. What the hell is even happening right now?” You crossed your arms, looking between the two siblings.

Rose finally addresses you, smiling kindly. The contrast from her expression before is kid of creepy. “You see, Karkat, my idiot of a brother forgot to let me know about his new relationship after I’ve helped him get his shit together enough to actually do something about his feelings. I think I deserve to at least know what happened first instead of hearing about it from my girlfriend.”

You stared at her and back at Dave. “Oh my god, you asked _her_ to help you win me over? Oh my fucking god, that’s why she and Kanaya have been setting us up at the beginning! It all makes sense now! _Oh my god, I can’t fucking believe this._ ”

Rose pins her glare back at Dave, crossing her arms. “Well, Dave? Where’s that apology I came here for?”

He sighs, shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry, Rose, I’ll be a better brother next time.” He recites lazily as if he’s done it multiple times before. Rose’s expression evens out into a more calm one.

“Good.” She straightens her blouse before marching up to him and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “I’m still happy for you, I just wish you'd told me sooner.”

Dave seems to deflate, even more, wrapping his own arms around her to return the hug. “I’m sorry.” He says, more sincere this time. You smile faintly to yourself, seeing the two being affectionate as family is rare to see since both of them guard their emotional side highly. It’s nice to see both of them being a little bit a of a sap.

Once Rose pulls away, she smiles at Dave and you. “I’m glad the two of you are finally together. Karkat, if Dave does something stupid and he needs a slap, call me.”

You give her a two finger salute. “Will do, Lalonde.”

“Well, I’ll be taking my leave. I assume the two of you are on a date, so excuse my intrusion.” She pats Dave on the arm one last time. “Have fun, boys.”

And with that, she turns to take her leave and you stare at Dave with a raised brow. He avoids looking at you.

“You know you’ve got some explaining to do, right?” You prompt him and he groans.

“Yeah, yeah. Alright, I’ll tell you about the Rose thing and her helping me out. After we get something to eat though, I’m hungry.”

You give him a nod and follow him to the counter to order some generic unhealthy food available at the arcade. Once the two of you are settled in, he tells you about how he’s enlisted Rose’s help even before the trip. He tells you about the cruise and how they’ve been planning it for a while and how Rose convinced him to use it as a way to get out of your bad side and at least form some type of friendship before the start of senior year.

You tease him about it and enjoy his flustered reactions.

Yeah. You love this stupid idiot.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Word travels quickly in your group of friends. You expected it.

But it was definitely embarrassing to have them all talk about it at dinner, while the two of you are actually sitting there. You’re beginning to think that keeping it a secret might’ve been for the best. But it’s too fucking late now. You know it’ll blow over eventually anyway. You just hope it’s soon.

The two of you manage to get through dinner though, although you were pretty embarrassed by the end of it. A lot of people asked you questions and teased the two of you.

But you manage to get through it and have a normal night. Dave kisses you goodnight before heading into his own cabin, and you have a light-hearted feeling in your chest. You feel like you’re floating.

You go to bed and sleep easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooooh boy. We got one more event about to happen before we're at the end. Glad you guys are still enjoying this after we've come so far. As always, thank you for the kudos and comments! Toodles till the next upd8~


	34. The Art Of Dancing The Tango

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 48 - Salvador de Bahia, Brazil  
> Day 49 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, strap in boys and girls, this is a long chapter. You don't have to click on the links provided, it's just for easier visualization- they're youtube links, by the way, just as a warning. Just so you guys have a better idea of what the fuck is happening. It's probs enough just to watch it even on mute.

The morning is the usual routine. Roxy wakes you up and you go get breakfast with the rest of your friends.

The day starts out nice enough with you leaving at eight. This time, you can freely hold Dave’s hand, although some of your friends did make ‘ooooo’s and ‘awwwweee’s noises at the two of you. You flip them off.

You stuck close to Strider on the way to Elevador Lacerda. It’s an iconic long-running elevator with great views of Salvador. Once you get inside it and you begin your descend upwards, Dave takes some pictures when you got to a high enough elevation to see the city from up top.

The two of you chat for a little while, just watching the views behind the window. Outside, Salvador de Bahia looked busy with life and action just happening everywhere. The various boats along the sea decorate it’s blue waters nicely and you can see your own cruise ship from up here.

Once you’re done viewing the thing though, and your friends have all taken their fair share of pictures, you move along the long hallway, windows looking out ti the view on either side of you. You exit into a boardwalk, railing across one side where you can continue to view Salvador de Bahia from up top.

You only spend an hour there before you’re moving again to the Barra Lighthouse, an old fort that also houses a lighthouse at the top.

Inside was a museum with various maps and charts and other trinkets from sunken European galleons transporting shit during the colonial days. It wasn’t a very big museum, but you still had to rush a bit at looking at everything since you’ve only got an hour there before you have to head out to a show that your chaperones have already bought a ticket to for every one of you.

So after that hour is up, Roxy and the chaperones pull you along to Balé Folclórico da Bahia to watch a Brazilian dance show filled with old folk dances and great music.

The show lasted for two hours, but you and the others definitely enjoyed it. At some point, Dave leans over from his seat next to you to say something.

“You think you’d want to join a dance class with me?”

You look at him with a raised brow before shrugging. “Sure, why not? Sounds like it could be fun.” You tell him honestly. He grins and you want to kiss his face again. You’ve been wanting to do that a lot.

But instead, you focus your attention back to the show, content with him just holding your hands. Running his thumb across your knuckles again and again for the remainder of the show.

Once the show was done, your chaperones take you out to lunch.

Finding out that Dave was such a closeted sap was probably your favourite little factoid about him. Because at some point during your lunch, he asked if he could taste your drink and when you offered it to him, he just puts his own straw into yours and grins mischievously.

Your cheeks burned and your stomach has let a wild herd of butterflies out of its cages. But you roll your eyes and take a sip from your own straw in the same glass at the same time as him. Aradia teases the two of you for being so lovey-dovey in public now and shows you a picture she took while the two of you were sipping the glass.

You tell her to delete that and Dave asks her to send it to him, and she does, to your dismay, while laughing.

You know that that one is probably going to make it onto his instagram.

After lunch, your chaperones take you to the Salvador Zoo and Botanical Garden.

The place was pretty big and spaced out, so your chaperones allowed you to stay for about two hours around the place. There were plenty of interesting creatures to see and Dave snapped a lot of photos of you.

“What do you think about zoos?” He asks you at some point while you walked through the walkway, looking at the various attractions around the place. You shrugged.

“They’re okay, I guess? My mom was never fond of them, saying that caging animals up for our own viewing and entertainment was cruel. But my dad convinced her to take me to one, saying that I need to experience a zoo at least once in my lifetime. I was seven and it was the one and only time I ever went to a zoo. So I guess… This is kind of nice.” You tell him, smiling to yourself at remembering your mom. You miss her.

He makes a humming sound of acknowledgement. “My mom, Ms. Lalonde, really liked animals, so she took me and Rose to a bunch of zoos and petting centers as a kid. One of the first times I actually felt like a proper, normal kid in my life.” He tells you in return, looking down at his camera with a small smile of his own.

You take his hand into yours and he loosely intertwines your fingers together. “Ms. Lalonde is a kind woman. She’s a great parent, even if she had issues with it early on. I hope she knows it."

He grins. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she? I should tell Rose that we both need to show our appreciation for her more often. We’re getting older fast and we’ll be both moving out of the house soon. I don’t think I’d want to leave her thinking she didn’t do enough of a good job as a mother to me and Rose. I know she’ll get lonely once we leave.”

“We should throw a party for her when you do leave. I think she needs it more to celebrate her success for raising two wonderful people like you and Rose.” You tell him, glancing at him with a small smile. He squeezes your hand.

“Yeah, that would be nice. Show her the appreciation she deserves.” He voices his own agreement. “Speaking of which… We’ll be proper adults soon. Got any plans, Kitkat?”

You bite your lip and knit your brows together for a moment. “I’m not completely sure. But I want to go into something that has to do with literature.” You tell him honestly.

“So, pretty much like Rose?” He asks.

“She plans on taking literature too?”

He nods. “Yep. She wants to be a published author.”

You make a small hum of acknowledgement. “That’s interesting… What about you, what do you plan on doing after high school?”

Dave shrugs. “I don’t know? I was thinking of maybe going into music or photography… Maybe even study paleontology, if I really wanted to.”

You grin and give his hand a squeeze this time. “Sounds interesting. I’m sure you’ll succeed in whatever you choose to do.”

He smiles before it falters a bit. “Will you stay?” He suddenly asks you.

You frown. “Hm?”

“I mean, how long do you think we’ll stay together?” He says, voice uncharacteristically soft and quiet. Huh. That’s… Something you’ve never given thought to. Of course, there’s a high likelihood that the two of you might be separated by whatever careers either of you chooses to do, but at the same time, even just going through senior year could prove to be hard to keep a relationship, depending on whatever happens.

Realistically, there’s a high chance the two of you will break up during or after high school. You also take into account both of your experiences in being in a relationship with someone. You have none, whatsoever, and Dave’s only dated Terezi for five months and Jade for three months. Not exactly long committed relationships like Aradia and Sollux. You’re both going to have to work hard to make this work between the two of you.

But… You’d like to think that the two of you can stay together for a long while, despite the circumstances. You’re naive like that. A hopeless romantic.

“I want to stay with you for as long as I can. As long as you’d let me.” You tell him honestly, looking down at your feet as you walked. You can feel your cheeks and neck burning up.

He slips his hand from your hand around your shoulders and pulls you close to peck at your cheek affectionately. “Me too. I want to stay with you for a long, long time.”

You let yourself giggle a bit, grinning up at him. “Alright then. Let’s make a promise now. That whatever happens, even if we get into an argument, we’ll both always talk it out with each other and stay together. We’ll work together to stay together. We’ll make this work no matter what happens. Deal?”

He grins at you, holding out his pinky finger. “Pinky promise?”

You roll your eyes, scoffing. “God, you are such a fucking oversized baby.” You tell him. But you wrap your own pinky around his. “Promise.”

The two of you share a laugh together before separating to continue holding each other’s hand. You continue to talk, going into various different topics, sometimes getting distracted by the animals around their enclosures.

The two hours seem to fly by quickly and before you know it, your chaperones are taking you out to your final destination before needing to go back to the ship.

Your last stop was at Mercado Modelo, another busy marketplace for some cool souvenirs to take home. Your group splits up and takes a tour of the place, checking things out and buying all sorts of trinkets.

Dave gets you both a matching red rubber band bracelets cause he thought they looked cool. He was touched when he realized you were actually wearing the shitty plastic ring he got you from the arcade and insisted in taking a photo of both of your wrists with the matching bracelet. Fucking sap.

He took more pictures of the busy market, making cool blurring effects as people walked briskly by. Mostly though, the two of you just walked around the place, chatting, getting interrupted every few minutes by vendors trying to sell you their wares.

All in all, the day at Salvador de Bahia wasn’t as hectic as you expected it to be like in all the other places you’ve been in. When your chaperones gather you all back up, Fefero charms yet another unsuspecting tourist to take a group photo of all of you in front of the market. Bless Feferi and her womanly wiles.

Eventually though, with the sun only beginning to set above your heads, you make your way back to the cruise ship. You did your routines, got dinner, then showered, did your usual nightly business, before Dave would come knocking at your door solely to give you a good night kiss. He does it every night since you got together and you find it highly endearing.

Then, you get ready for bed, texting your dad about the day. A quick check in instagram told you that he indeed posted the photo of the two of you sharing a drink. But the motherfucker put generically terrible glitter stickers and a pink gradient around the picture with obnoxious hearts all around along with a shitty cartoon puppy in the corner. Blingee was in the fucking corner, telling you exactly what he used to edit this shit.

_What the fuck is this? @ds_strider_

Just looking at the thing makes you want to projectile vomit all over your bed.

_You likey? ;) @krkt.vantas_

_Fuck no! It feels like my eyes just got eviscerated by a rusty doctor’s scalpel while it was being handled by a drunk nurse who’s got no place in the hospital in the first place with their current intoxicated state. What the actual fuck. I literally wish I was blind so I’d never have to stare at that fucking monstrosity again. @ds_strider_

_I’m glad you like it, Karbby <3 <3 <3 XOXO @krkt.vantas _

Holy fuck, you might literally just die of pure embarrassment. That shit in on the internet now. Forever.

You’re going to kill him in the morning.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈ 

 

There’s a knocking early in the morning at your door. You groaned and rolled off your bed. You’re not even sure why someone would be knocking at your door this early in the morning. It’s only eight in the morning and you’re not supposed to go anywhere. You’ll be at sea for a solid three days.

So when you open the door, you’re genuinely surprised to see Dave on the other side of the door. You groaned, even more, dragging your hand down your face. “Why the fuck are you waking me up so early in the goddamn morning? I should still be asleep until ten. That’s two hours, Dave. Two more hours of sleep.”

He leans against your door frame, a smirk playing on his lips. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

You give him a deadpan look. “What the fuck does it look like, shitstain?”

“Alright, wanna have breakfast with me? We have somewhere to be that we can’t be late for.”

You raise an eyebrow. “What?”

He shrugs, pushing himself off the doorframe. “Look, just have breakfast with me, alright? You’ll see where we’re going afterwards.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose. “Fine. Just let me get dressed first.”

“Oh, wear something comfortable. Something you wouldn’t mind sweating in.” He tells you and you narrow your eyes in suspicion at him. But you nod and close your door, changing out of your pyjamas into something comfortable, as he told you. You wear a comfortable shirt and your usual sweater along with comfortable jeans. If it involves sweating, that probably means it has something to do with physical activity, which you hate with a passion.

Once you’re done, you open your door again to find him still there, leaning against the railing. “You’re ready?” You give him a nod and follow him to the breakfast lounge.

You have a normal breakfast with your boyfriend, but he seems more rambly than usual. He’s a little more talkative than usual.

Once you’re finished, he takes you back to the cabins to grab a backpack with towels and a change of clothes along with a couple of water bottles. He tells you to prepare something similar. Then he takes you down a few corridors, before stopping in front of a door. You raise an eyebrow at him but he moves his head, urging you to open the door.

You roll your eyes but open the door. Only to be met with a dance studio, white and red walls with one of them made completely out of a mirror. There’s a couple of other people milling about in the room, all in comfortable clothes, clearly ready for physical exercise. You look over at Dave suspiciously.

“What the fuck is this?” You question him as he urges you to take a step inside.

“Dance lesson.” He tells you vaguely. You had a feeling since this is a fucking dance studio.

“What fucking dance lesson?”

He smiles at you. “Turns out the ship does offer Tango classes. I signed us up for a full day of dance lessons.” He tells you and you just stare at him.

“What.” You say dumbly.

He chuckles at your reaction, taking your hand and guiding you inside. “Dance lessons. On Tango. You said you wouldn’t mind doing a dance lesson with me. So I signed us up both for it last night.” He tells you a certain sing-song tone to his voice.

You bite your lip, feeling nervous doing something like this around other people. He puts down his things along one side of the wall with a bunch of other people’s stuff and you do the same.

“C’mon. I’ll introduce you to the dance instructor.” He tells you, taking your hand, approaching one of the people chatting inside the dance studio.

You frown. “You know the dance instructor?”

He simply grins at you. Then you realize where he’s leading you to. _Who_ he’s leading you to.

It’s whats-her-face from the beauty pageant. You have no idea what her name was.

She’s got her frizzy curly hair up in a ponytail, with black leggings, a red tank top, and white sneakers. She notices the two of you approaching and she moves from her current conversation partner to wave you guys over.

“Dave! You’re here. And I see you’ve brought over who I assume will be your partner for the day?” She greets the two of you, hands on her hips, smiling widely. You keep your facial expression your default scowl.

“Rochelle. Yeah, you remember Karkat, right?” Dave greets back with a friendly smile of his own.

Rochelle eyes you sideways, still grinning. “Yeah, I do. Mcshouty pants who lost his shit over me invading your conversation awhile ago. I’m guessing that was pretty typical behaviour for him anyway?”

You bite the inside of your cheek, avoiding eye contact. You do feel a little embarrassed about that. Dave chuckles. “Yeah, pretty much.” He says and you glare at him.

She clasps her hands together. “Well then! It’s nice to properly meet you, Karkat. Truce?” She offers her hand to you and you take it, rolling your eyes.

“Yeah, sure, truce.” You say a little monotonously.

She claps her hands together. Again, her excitement could literally rival Jade’s or Feferi’s.  “Alright! Well, the two of you are pretty early to the class, actually. We’re still waiting on a couple of people. You ready to get your groove on though, Dave?” She winks at him, and he laughs.

“Hell yeah, I am. I’m ready to win that fifty you promised because I am going to impress the fuck out of you with my mad dance skills.”

She laughs. “Good! That’s the spirit! Well, the two of you can just chill here for a bit and I’ll sign the two of you in. I’ve still got a couple more people to talk to! See you boys on the dance floor!”

She turns to leave, waving over to another newcomer that comes through the door. You raise a brow at Dave. “You guys are friends?”

He grins at you. “Don’t worry, she knows I’m taken. Plus, she’s like, twenty-two, even though she literally still looks like a nineteen-year-old.”

You nod, taking a look around the room again. It’s a wide space with lots of room for moving, which will probably be important. You roll up your sleeves, thinking that it'd probably be a good idea.

“Oh my god! Dave! Karkat!” You hear another loud cheery voice but from a different cheerful girl. You turn around and see Jade bouncing your way, Aradia in tow behind her.

“Oh shit. Harley, you’re joining the class with Aradia? This is gonna be some tough competition then.” Dave muses, giving the girls a warm smile.

Jade laughs, sounding like bells in your ears. Jade has always had a pretty laugh, one of the things that drew you into her back at the start of high school when you met her. “It’s not a competition, Dave! But me and Megido here will gladly kick your asses on the dance floor!”

“That’s a lot of trash talking there, Harley. You better fucking deliver of you’re talking big like that.” You tell her with a smirk, crossing your arms. She gives you finger guns. She and Jake seem to do that a lot.

“You better believe me and Aradia are gonna _slay_!”

“Oh, my _cod_. I can’t fucking believve this.” You hear look to the door where Captor and Ampora are approaching your group. Both of them look miserable as fuck.

Aradia raises a brow, looking from one boy to the other. “What are the two of you doing here? I never would’ve guessed that the two of you would join a Tango class, much less together.”

“Feferi signed us up.” Is all Sollux has to say for everything to make sense.

“Oh! Looks like we’ve got some company with us today.” You hear the sing-song voice of Kanaya and when Captor and Ampora turn, you see both girls also making their way in your little group from the entrance.

“That we surely do, dear. This’ll certainly be an… _Entertaining_ class for sure.”ose replies, a sly smile on her face. Dave groans beside you.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re here too. I’m beginning to regret taking this class if _you’re_ gonna be here to judge me. Fuck.” He whines, and you chuckle.

“Stop being so over dramatic, Dave.” Rose crosses her arms, but she looks amused more than anything else. “I’m not here to judge you. I’ll simply be enjoying seeing how you fare during the class. Maybe make sure you don’t embarrass Karkat here.”

You raise an eyebrow at her and she matches your expression, lips quirked up at the side. “Please, Rose. I’m fucking amazing at dancing.”

She chuckles, covering her mouth with her fingers. “Alright, whatever you say, Dave.”

“So, why are Captor and Ampora here?” Kanaya questions, raising a brow at the other two.

“Feferi signed us up.” They both answer in sync, glancing at each other before awkwardly looking away. Eridan runs a hand through his hair and Sollux rubs the back of his neck. Jade and Aradia giggle to each other.

“This is definitely looking to be really fun,” Jade says, and Aradia nods, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Rochelle comes around to sign in your other friends before going off in front of the mirror and clapping her hands to gain everyone’s attention. By this time, it looks like there are about twenty people in the room.

“Alright, everyone! I’m Rochelle Von Amsterdam and I’ll be your instructor for the day! We’re gonna start by doing a little warm up! Stretch out our limbs a bit! Get into lines and follow my lead.” She announces, waiting for everyone to organize themselves. Then, she starts the stretches and you all follow after her.

After a few minutes of stretching, she claps her hands again to gather everyone’s attention. Then she tells you a bit about Tango and how dancing is an art form and all that shit. When she’s done her grand introduction speech is when she finally begins the class at nine, like the scheduled time it’s supposed to start.

She gets you to go into a half moon circle so everyone can have a view of her and her steps. She calls up her dance partner and co-instructor for the dance lesson, a brunette dude named Chadwick. Chad for short.

She first explains to you the starting form, where your hands need to go and where your feet need to be and how the lead signals their partner, the follower, where to go.

She shows you the basic steps of how to move across the dance floor without any tricks or moves added, verbally walking you through each motion. She goes through the lead’s steps and then the follower’s steps to show what each person needs to do when dancing. She shows you the [eight-step basic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvewX55VADs&t=0s&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=2), going through each movement slowly so that everyone can catch it.

Once she’s done, she cues up the music and tells you to find a partner and to practice it for a little while. She’ll be walking around the room to see how everyone’s form is.

Dave takes your hand and you both take the proper starting position, before beginning to practice the steps. You look down at your feet the whole time, making sure you’re not tripping over yourself and that your making the correct movements. You focus on where you place your weight and for the signal of which way your partner is leading you to as you dance across the dance floor.

Rochelle eventually comes to check up on the two of you after you’ve fucked up a couple of times, but now you have the hang of it. She instructs you to be a little less rigid and to let each step flow into the next. She tells you to relax and trust your lead, before challenging you to try and do the steps without looking down on your feet.

The first song ends and the second one cues up, and the more you do it, the more natural everything feels. You get more and more sure of the next step, anticipating where to move and following through with it.

Dave helps you through the motions, always mutter under his breath and counting each beat. He’s really good at keeping count of your steps and matching it in time with the music in the background. Soon enough, you’re actually having a lot of fun and Dave smiles at you when you’re able to finish the whole round of steps without looking down at your feet and without making a single mistake.

For the next few minutes, you flow across the dance floor and pass by other nearby dancers.

You do this routine for fifteen to twenty minutes before Rochelle gathers your attention back to show you the next steps and a couple of fun tricks to add to the eight-step basic.

Rochelle turns off the music and you go back to the half moon shape circle to watch her and Chad. She shows you the [Grapevine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnkO0slLSyw&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=2) next, how the lead can enter into the steps and step out, and how the follower is supposed to move in relation to where the lead is taking them.

She goes through it a couple of times, slowing down every few steps and repeating it to show the motions, making sure to verbally explain each step for maximum understanding. Then, she cues up the music again and she tells you to practice incorporating it into the eight-step basic.

This one was more confusing to go through and you fuck up your steps a lot. But luckily, you have still yet to step on Dave’s foot. He’s really good at encouraging you though like you do when he’s the one to fuck up and the two of you end up stumbling awkwardly. You laugh it off easily, before retrying again.

Rochelle corrects your form when she gets to you, and takes each of you as a partner to show how to do the steps properly. Then, once you try it out with a little more success, she leaves you be and tells you to continue working on it.

This time, you take thirty minutes before Rochelle is back up front and gathering your attention for the next move.

The next is a [Carousel or Le Calecita](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmgKDnA56Uo&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=3). She shows you movements like usual, and this time, the lead has to do most of the steps. She shows you ways to get into it and out of it from the eight basic and then cues up the music for you to practice again.

This one was easier to master since all you had to do as a follower was spin on your foot while Dave walks around you. This one only takes fifteen minutes of practice, since everyone seems to get it easily enough. Soon, Rochelle is up front again and getting all of your attention.

She shows you through the steps of what a [Media Vuelta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUEY-pDW1OU&index=4&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd) is, and like the grapevine, it’s a little harder to follow through and remember each step. Rochelle helps the two of you again with one, taking each of you through the motions. She corrects Dave on proper steps as a lead while she plays the role of a follower and she takes you through the proper response to the lead when she takes the role of the lead.

She watches the two of you go through it for a little bit before she leaves, satisfied with your progression. You practice through it and when thirty minutes is up and she goes up to the front again, you find that going through the movements of that one is still a little clumsy on both of your parts.

The next move she teaches you is called a[ Bicicleta, or Pedalling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXf90EKxaE&index=5&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). It’s a fun move to do and easy enough to incorporate into the dance. Again, this only takes fifteen minutes of practice to master before you’re onto your next move.

This step was called [El Sanguchito](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCFJYlFqj94&index=6&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). She goes through the motions, and again, this one was easier to understand.

Rochelle didn’t need to coach you on this one when she came around to check on the two of you. By fifteen minutes, you’ve got the hang of it and by twenty minutes, she’s back up front to teach you the next step.

The next one she teaches you is called the [Parada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyuvHEA3i74&index=7&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd), or the Stop. This one was a little more complicated again and by this time, you’re noticing a pattern.

You and Dave go through the motions, and have a little difficulty, almost running into Jade and Aradia at some point. Rochelle comes around to correct your postures and the length of your steps to make sure you don’t run into anyone again along with how Dave can better signal you where to go and what to do.

Twenty-five minutes pass by and you think you’ve gotten the hang of it.

The next move is called the [Drag, or Arrastre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcnXRkxRJ3c&index=8&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). This one was fairly simple to follow, although it still took around another twenty minutes to get the hang of without it feeling awkward on the footing. For most of these moves, you both have to watch your feet and where you’re stepping.

Rochelle continues to help. You think you’ve gone through about ten to fifteen songs at this point. Maybe more.

The next time Rochelle stops the music, she tells you that for the next forty-five minutes, you get to practice all the steps you’ve learned so far before taking a break for lunch.

You and Dave go through the eight-step basic before pausing at some point to talk through the different steps you could try to incorporate into the basics in a one fluid set of dancing. And so, you try it out, walking across the dance floor with the eight-step basic, before he occasionally signals you when to do the move you were supposed to do.

You go through the Carousel easily, stepping out and continuing to walk the basics. Then you try out the El Sanguchito next, and you fuck up a couple of the steps, but manage to save it and move on. The Grapevine was a fucking disaster since you managed to already forget most of the movements. This time, you do step on Dave’s foot. Multiple times. He laughs and teases you about it before you flick him on the forehead and tell him to shut up.

You try again, starting with the basic, before trying to transition into the Grapevine, slower this time. As you move, your body slowly remembers what to do next and you’re able to do it semi-successfully. Then, you try out the Drag, which was easy since it’s fresh in your memory, before immediately transitioning into a Media Vuelta. You fuck up trying to do that again and end up bumping into another couple.

You try a couple more times to practice each move and try to incorporate it into a whole dance routine, trying not to fuck up in the process. You’d say you’re about forty percent successful most of the time.

The two of you are pretty shit at this, but you’re having a lot of fun with Dave. You think this is probably the most and the longest you’ve seen him genuinely smile. You think this is the most and the longest time you’ve kept a smile on your own face.

When forty minutes is up, you all take a break from dancing and move off of the dance floor. You take off your sweater, having sweated a bit through that whole process and take a long sip from your water bottle.

You and the rest of your friends in the Tango class go out for lunch together. Sollux complains about how hard everything was while Eridan actually found it really fun and easy. Seems like he has a natural talent for it. Jade and Aradia both joked about probably being the worst pair out of all of you, since they apparently needed a lot of help. At some point, Chadwick apparently had to call in Rochelle to help them both because the poor guy was having issues with teaching both girls the move. Rose and Kanaya try to humbly brag about their skill but fail miserably at the ‘humbly’ part. Looks like you and Dave are just moderately good at it. Not the absolute worst, but not the best either. Which you’re totally fine with, you’re having tons of fun.

After an hour is up, you all head back to the dance studio to get ready for the next half of the all-day Tango class. It’s about one forty in the afternoon at this time. You’ve wrapped your sweater around your waist for this one.

Rochelle starts up the class again, providing you with a simple move to learn first. She teaches you the [Sacada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsiG6syustM&index=10&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd), or how to Sacada.

For the followers, it’s a bit easier since it’s taking a piece from a previous move you’ve learned. But the lead’s steps are pretty easy to master too. All in all, this takes about twenty minutes to get down. Pretty easy enough to start the class up again.

Rochelle describes this next move as one of the most ‘fun’ ones to do. She teaches you the Leg Wrap, otherwise called an [Enganche](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN-WDFR6rNA&index=9&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). She moved through the motions, explaining the weight changes and how the lead guides their follower through it.

This one makes you a little flustered, just because it feels a bit more intimate than all of the other dance steps. Not like the whole dance hasn’t felt intimate already, you just feel weird doing the movements like this or pressing up against him on this way.

Rochelle takes great amusement in the way the two of you do it when she comes around to check on you. You glare at her when she starts to talk about how this is fun because it’s more of the more ‘sexy’ moves in Tango. She clearly knows you’re flustered and from the light dusting of red on Dave’s face, so is he.

This one takes another twenty to rehearse and get right. You still feel flustered by the time it’s over though.

The next step needs you to wrap your leg around his again but in a different way. This time, she shows you how to do a [Gancho](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB_3pDRI-FU&index=11&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd), or a Hook.

You’re more comfortable with this one and it doesn’t take all that many steps to do. So another twenty minutes pass by and the two of you have mostly got it down. Rochelle simply gives you an approving nod when she came by, before continuing on looking for others that may be struggling with the move.

After yet another twenty-five minutes, Rochelle teaches you your twelfth move of the day. She teaches you the [Piernazo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C8dYxI7JaA&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=12).

The way she shows it is quick, but when she goes through each movement in more detail, you realize this one is gonna make you flustered again.

Trying to practice this one slowly needs you to press up against Dave again, taking careful steps to get it right. You hear a whistle at some point while you practice and glare at Jade and Aradia who paused for a moment to watch the two of you try to do it. You glared at both girls.

This one takes about thirty more minutes to get down, and you try avoiding looking at Dave the whole time, focusing on your steps and movements.

The next move is learning a [Boleo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYbtIQ2tSA&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=13). This one’s steps are pretty simple and it doesn’t take more than ten minutes to do. That one was a nice quick one.

Rochelle teaches you a [Colgada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rWh4Z9mVHQ&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=14) next, and this one is a more confusing one to do again. She explains the signals the lead must give out before going through what the follower has to do next.

Rochelle gives you about twenty-five minutes with this one, but by the end, you’re still majorly fucking it up, stumbling over your own feet with Dave having to catch you to make sure you don’t fall to the floor. That one has been by far the hardest one for you to even get so far.

The fifteenth move is an easy enough one. She shows you how to do a [Volcada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76-r6RiGufQ&index=15&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). It doesn’t take much effort to learn and the movement is a really easy flow from one step to the other.

This takes another ten minutes to learn and Rochelle doesn’t even come around your way to check.

The second to last move to learn is a [Corrida](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbCA95tte90&index=16&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd). Again, this one was fairly easy, only needing you to get the steps down in fifteen minutes.

The last move you learn is a [Sentada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioH1xutF9c0&list=PL2iL92WPIFvdnYhbIkzCeOeu4-gOqzZSd&index=17). This one is… Again, pretty uncomfortable for you to do. When Rochelle comes around to see what you’re doing, she ends up laughing at apparently how adorable the two of you were, trying to execute the move. You tell her to fuck off if she doesn’t plan on helping.

She does end up helping both of you quite a bit on this one again. The practice time on this one is only fifteen minutes, even though quite a few of you still need some work on it. Rochelle then takes five minutes to show you end poses before telling you that you’ve got two hours to play around with your newly learnt dance moves.

And so, you play around with the moves, trying to mix and match the ones you learned and incorporating it into the basic steps you learned at the start.

You’d like to think that you’re a bit better this time around and that you’ve improved from the last time you were given free time to practice any of the moves you’ve been taught.

At some point though, you and Dave take a fifteen-minute break to take a sip of water and watch the others dance for a bit. You chat for a little bit too.

Eridan and Sollux look awkward together. Well, mostly Sollux, who’s taken the role of lead. Eridan seems to do just fine doing the moves, but Sollux’s signalling is off and they end up stumbling through things a lot. Jade and Aradia are just having a lot of fun with each other, not even looking like they’re trying very hard to do the moves correctly anymore. And of course, Rose and Kanaya look fucking perfect, rarely making a mistake with Rose taking the lead and Kanaya doing the following.

“So, did you have fun today?” Dave asks you, taking a sip of his water bottle after. The two of you are sitting near your bags on the floor. You see a couple other dancing pairs taking a break too.

You use the towel you brought to wipe away at the sweat on your forehead. “Yeah. I had a lot of fun today. Does this count as our third date?”

He grins at you and shrugs. “If you want it to be, then yeah. Sure.”

You smile at him. “Great job. This a pretty fucking impressive third date then.” You tell him, playfully punching his shoulder. He laughs.

After a while, the two of you get up again and do some more dancing. By the end of your two hours of free dancing, it’s six.

You and Dave thank Rochelle for the dance class and she tells the two of you to continue practicing the dance often. Tango is a genuinely fun dance to do once you get the hang of things. And yeah, you’d definitely like to dance the Tango again with Dave sometime.

You and your friends head to dinner together, chatting about your day and your experiences during the class. You share some funny moments and good laughs all throughout your dinner. But before long, you’re heading back to your cabin to get into more comfortable clothes after a good shower.

Per usual, Dave gives you a good night kiss around ten before you head to bed. You text your father for a little while about your day and end up scrolling through instagram for a little while before falling asleep.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

There’s a loud knocking on your door that rouses you from your sleep. You groan, and check the time, thinking it must be six or seven in the morning already. But when you check your phone, you realize it’s only two thirty in the morning. Who the fuck is banging down your door at this time?

You roll off your bed groggily, yawning and stretching as you made your way to the door. Upon opening it, you’re surprised to see Kanaya of all people.

You’re about to open your mouth to ask her what the fuck she’s doing up this late but she speaks before you can.

“Oh my god, thank god you’re finally awake, Karkat. Put on your shoes, we’ve gotta go.” She tells you hurriedly. When you really look at her, you see that she looks pretty fucking awful too. Her hair is sticking up in a classic bed hair type of way, and she’s wearing a jade green bathrobe with florally patterned pyjamas.

“What the fuck is happening?” You demand more than ask, rubbing your eyes and yawning once more. Kanaya is weirdly fidgety as if she can’t wait to just grab you and move right now.

“Gamzee overdosed, Karkat. We need to go _now_.” She tells you straightforwardly and you can feel your stomach bottom out and your senses kick into high alert.

You don’t have to be asked again to put on your shoes. Within seconds, you’re out your cabin door, Kanaya dragging you by your wrist as she ran, leading the way.


	35. The Part Where Everything Goes Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 50 & 51 - At Sea  
> Day 52 - Ile Royale, French Guiana

The in cruise emergency room was just as sterile as any other hospital you’ve been to.

It’s three in the morning and all of your friends are waiting in the hall, waiting for a doctor to come out and update you on Gamzee’s state. 

Tavros has explained to you that he was sleeping over at Gamzee’s cabin after a game night when he heard the guy stumbling around in the bathroom. He was a light sleeper, so any noise easily wakes him up.

He didn’t think much of it. It’s kind of a known issue between all of your friends that Gamzee has a hard time sleeping. An Insomniac. So he’s been prescribed sleeping pills- melatonin. But when Tavros tried to fall asleep again, he realized that it was suddenly very quiet in the bathroom for far too long and Gamzee has been out of the bed for a while. Enough for the air conditioner to cool off his spot on the bed.

Tavros explains to you that when he got up to check on Gamzee in the bathroom, he found him passed out on the floor. He said he ran off to get Equius’ help in carrying the guy all the way to the emergency room. Nepeta and Equius were the first ones to know about it. And from them, the news spread. Since Dirk is still up at this time, he’s the first chaperone to know about the situation. He barges into Roxy’s, Jake’s, and Jane’s rooms to wake them up. Roxy wakes up Rose, who wakes up Kanaya and then wakes you up. Rose also wakes up Dave, and they both wake up John and Jade.

Tavros had stayed in the emergency room ever since he got there in the first place, while the rest of your friends slowly trickled in one by one, all looking alerted and concerned.

So right now, you’re all anxiously waiting to hear about the situation from a doctor.

About fifteen minutes more of waiting, a doctor finally comes out to talk to the chaperones. Jane tells you that he’s been stabilized for the time being, while the three chaperones went off with the doctor to check on him. You’re told to wait a little bit more before you can go and visit him in his room.

Once you’re all finally let in, it’s four in the morning and at this point, you’re all tired and miserable. But you visit his room to check on him.

He’s current asleep, a heart monitor telling you his heart rate. In case it starts to slow down since that’s one of the effects of overdosing on sleeping pills. It slowly shuts down your vital organs if taken too much in quantity.

Your friends stayed for a little while, but eventually, each one of them retreated back to their cabins. Your chaperones told you that they’ll look after him and that you can all go back and get some sleep.

You, Tavros, Rose, Kanaya, Terezi, Feferi, John and Dave opted to stay put. Rose reasons that it’ll be good for Gamzee to wake up with people around him if to do nothing else but talk and provide some comfort. She also says that it’ll be good not to have too many people either, as to not overwhelm him and stuff. Mostly just so your other friends don’t feel guilty for going back to sleep instead of sticking around to wait for him to wake up. You understand that your friends need some rest too. Most of you probably barely had two to three hours of sleep.

You hate to admit it, but when you first arrived at the emergency room and the idea that your once best friend’s life is in danger began to sink into your head, you had cried. Dave was quick to sit beside you and comfort you.

It’s just… You feel bad because you and Gamzee had been childhood friends, but as the years went on, and you both gained more friends, you began to drift apart. Fuck, you didn’t even know that his insomnia had become such a problem that he needed to take higher and higher dosages just to get to sleep. Tavros had told you.

You feel shitty because you haven’t spent time with him for a long time now, with just the two of you. For practically years. You feel like a garbage friend and like you didn’t care enough to notice one of your closest friend’s issues. Even though you know that those thoughts aren’t true, you still feel selfish and like utter shit.

Dave is there to disprove of every self-hating comment you make about yourself, but it’s still hard to control your emotions, hard for you not to believe the thoughts you’re having. But it feels good to at least have someone there to cry on. It feels good to have someone’s arms around you, and comforting you, even if it only fuels the feelings of selfishness that you feel inside of you.

Terezi had also cried. She and Gamzee used to date, in sophomore year, and you know they got really close to each other. They dated for a whole year, before breaking up because things just weren’t working out anymore. She was stressed from school and things were bad at home and she just couldn’t deal with having to help Gamzee with his own bad habits. But you know they loved each other at some point, so this was a big deal to her as well.

Tavros, who’s closest to Gamzee at the moment, had a small break down after the shock of everything wore off. John, Vriska, and Aradia shuffled him away from the group, but you know he didn’t deal with the situation very well.

For now, you stayed by Gamzee’s side, while Tavros sat across from you, on his other side. Rose and Dave were talking in the corner of the room in hushed whispers. Kanaya is leaning behind your chair, a constant comforting hand on your shoulder. Terezi was still outside, with Feferi still trying to console her. She walked right out after the scent of ‘sterilization’ hit her sensitive nose and was too strong for her to handle.

You wipe away at your face every now and then, still sniffling for a couple of minutes. You’re tired, your eyes sting, and you probably desperate need the sleep. But you made the resolve on not going anywhere until the motherfucker woke up and you’re absolutely sure he’s alive.

It’s around eleven to twelve when he finally wakes up. Rose and Kanaya had forced you to get up and grab some breakfast while Tavros stays behind to look after Gamzee. He had gotten himself a meal earlier before you.

So when you come back into the room, Tavros and Gamzee were quietly chatting. It looked like he was still half asleep, slurring words heavily, but you can understand him when he tells you “sorry for makin you worry, Karbro.”

You had sniffled and tried not to cry again, calling him a fuckass and to never self diagnose himself a higher dosage without a doctor’s permission. Tavros tells you that he’ll keep a close eye on Gamzee from now on to make sure he doesn’t try downing too many sleeping pills again. You thank him.

You, Tavros, and Gamzee chat for a little while until the motherfucker dozes right back to sleep, heavy anesthesia still in his veins. Dave coaxes you back to your room to get some much-needed sleep while Terezi, Feferi, Rose, and Kanaya stayed up to continue looking after Makara.

Dave sat beside you on your bed, letting you listen to his more calming remixes to go to sleep peacefully. He was messing about in his computer, editing photos, the last time you see him while you were still awake. The calming music helps to easily ease you back into sleep though, and you’re thankful to at least have your boyfriend’s calming presence beside you. His constant ramblings to himself mixed with the music lulled you into a comfortable state of rest.

The next time you wake up is around three to four in the afternoon. Strider had fallen asleep beside you on the bed, his back to you. His shades and laptop sat on the bedside cabinet.

You had smiled and watched his peaceful sleeping form for a little while, snapping a photo of his calm, unguarded expression with your phone. You like the way his eyelashes flutter every time he breathes in, and the quiet snore that escapes him when he breathes out. He’s cute.

When you leaned over to kiss him on the cheek as a silent thank you for staying with you, he easily wakes up. New fact about Dave; he’s a light sleeper.

He yawns and stretches his arms above his head as he shifted around on the bed to face you. You position yourself to lie on top of him, resting your arms above his chest and nestling your head into it as you watched him slowly become more alert of the world around him. He blinks at you a couple of times before a faint smile creeps up his features.

“Morning.” He greets you, lifting a hand to brush a hair behind your ear.

“It’s three in the afternoon, dumbass.” You tell him lazily, leaning into his touch and closing your eyes. “Thanks for staying with me. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.”

He chuckles. “Do you think I would ever skip out on the chance of getting to sleep with my boyfriend?”

You give him a deadpan look and flick him on the forehead. He just grins at you. “Anyway, how was your sleep?” He asks you.

You shrug. “My eyes don’t sting anymore. I still feel kind of tired though, but that’s probably just because I slept in the morning and my body is feeling extra sluggish.”

He hums in acknowledgement, continuing to play with the strands of your hair. “Well, we can do whatever you want to do.”

You think about it, and now that you’re thinking about it, you realize you still feel shitty about the whole event. Sure, you’re more rested now, but you still feel guilty and bad and just. You feel like being lazy for the rest of the day.

You tell him that and he tells you that the two of you could just cuddle on the bed until you want to get up, whenever that is.

The offer was tempting, you’ve never spooned with anyone before. So you agree to it and the two of you reposition yourselves so your back is against Dave’s, while he hands slip around your torso and his legs get tangled up in your own.

He lazily brushes his thumb over your knuckles over and over again and the two of you make light conversation throughout the whole session. When he asks you how you’re feeling though, you tell him you’re fine and avoid any topics dealing with your emotions about the whole thing. He gets the hint quickly and talks to you about other distracting things, which you’re glad for. You’re happy he doesn’t press you on it, even if you’re giving off vibes that something might still be wrong and that you’re still actually feeling shitty and down on yourself.

You stayed on your bed for a solid two fucking hours before you force yourself to get up when your stomach couldn’t stop grumbling about being hungry. You didn’t have lunch, after all.

So the two of you grab an early dinner together before you decide to visit Gamzee again. Dave tells you that he’ll be looking around for Rose and leaves you be to do your thing. You appreciate that he’s giving you space to spend time with your other friends without having to be near you all the time, considering the two of you have kind of been inseparable lately.

Tavros was still around and it looks like he desperately needs sleep. Gamzee is more awake and alert now, trying to convince Tavros to go to sleep and that he’ll be fine when you entered the room. You jump in and tell him you’ll take the shift of accompanying Gamzee while he gets some rest himself. You got your own rest after all.

Tavros finally caves in and leaves you with Gamzee. You wish him a good rest.

For the rest of the evening, you talk with Gamzee until he falls asleep again, but not before he thanks you and asks you to thank the rest of your friends for keeping him company all throughout the day. Terezi and Kanaya had been with him when you fell asleep and Rose and Feferi was just around before you arrived. You tell him that you’ll make sure to thank them and for him to just “go the fuck to sleep already.” He smiled at you for that.

You retire back to your bed shortly after that when Terezi pops her head in and tells you that she wants to spend some time with Gamzee, even if he’s currently asleep. You leave her to it.

You still do your nightly routines. Take a shower, brush your teeth, the works. You had texted your father before hopping into the shower and you find it odd that he still hasn’t texted you back even after spending half an hour in the shower, and another half fixing yourself up for bed. He usually gets back to you quick since he’s always got his phone with him. It usually doesn’t take more than half an hour before he texts you back.

Something feels wrong about the situation, but at the time, you had shrugged it off. It’s not that abnormal for him to actually be too busy to text you back. It’s fine.

It’s not fine.

You had spent most of your time binge-watching movies on the couch pretty late into the night since you had slept all the way until three in the afternoon earlier that day. Dave had come around to kiss you goodnight at some point.

It’s around two in the morning when you received a call from an unknown phone number.

“Hello?” You had answered the call, wary of who’s on the other side. You rarely get phone calls from unknown numbers and most of the time, they’re just wrong phone calls. You were expecting this to be just that.

“Hello? Am I speaking to Karkat Vantas?” A melodic female’s voice comes from the other side.

“Yeah, that’s me. Who’s this?” You ask, reaching for the remote and pausing your movie.

“This is St. Angelica’s Hospital, and I’m calling to inform you of an emergency. Arthur Vantas was recently admitted to our emergency room after he called and is now currently going through emergency surgery. Can you make it to the hospital for further information?”

Your stomach drops and your blood runs cold. “What?” You hear yourself mutter, but you feel so far away from reality you feel like you’re watching a movie- this isn’t happening to you. Not right now. It can’t be.

“Arthur Vantas? He’s your father if I’m getting this correctly? You’re listed as his emergency phone number.” She tells you, but when you stay too quiet for too long, she continues on. “He’s been admitted due to a fall from the stairs. Luckily, he stayed conscious enough to dial nine one one. But as we found out, he’s suffered from a bursted artery in the brain due to the trauma to the head caused by the fall. He’s currently going through an emergency surgery for subarachnoid hemorrhage, to stop the bleeding. Can you make it here as soon as you can?”

Your heart is racing in your chest and adrenaline is running through your veins. “I can’t.” You manage to get out, hearing the strain on your own voice. Your eyes sting it’ taking everything in you not to cry. You’re a fighting a losing battle against it though.

“Pardon me? You can’t? Can I ask why?” She questions politely, but you can hear the concern laced into her words.

“I’m in a fucking cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.” You tell her bluntly, but the harshness of your tone is dulled when your voice cracks as you say the word ‘cruise ship’. You close your eyes tightly, pressing the heels of your palms into your eyes until you see strange colours behind your eyelids. You can feel the floodgates in your eyes burst.

“Oh.” She says rather curtly. “Well, if you can’t make it, we’ll make sure to keep you posted on his situation, alright? I’ll call you again as soon as I get an update on how his surgery is doing.” She tells you, her voice immediately changing into a comforting and understanding tone.

You bite back a hiccup and nod before mentally slapping yourself for how fucking stupid that was. You’re in a fucking phone call, she can’t fucking see you, you ignoramus shit flinging dumbass. “Yeah. Okay. Thank you.” You tell her, hating yourself for how heavily your voice cracks at every syllable. You’re so fucking pathetic. How much more fucking pathetic can you get, shit show asshole?  The answer? You can definitely get so much more fucking pathetic because you’re a stupid crybaby fucker. _Fuck yourself so hard with a rusty six-foot nail. Fuck._

“Alright.” She says, voice soft and sympathetic. Then, she hangs up. She doesn’t tell you that everything’s gonna be alright, or try to comfort or console you over the phone as a usual nurse would. Because then, she’d be lying to your face. Because there’s absolutely no fucking guarantee how this will all turn out to be.

_Fall._

_Head trauma._

_Bursted artery in the brain._

_Hemorrhage_.

_Hemorrhage. Hemorrhage. Hemorrhage._

It doesn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to understand how fucking fatal a brain hemorrhage is.

And you hate yourself because if you weren’t there and he wasn’t able to dial the emergency number, you would’ve lost your father without ever fucking knowing until you come home.

And that scares the living shit out of you.

The thought of losing another parent and coming home to an empty home is too fucking much for your own brain to handle. You can’t imagine your life without your dad, not this early on in your life. He’s fifty-three, but you expected him to at least live long enough to at least maybe see you get fucking married. Or maybe even long enough to have grandkids, if you decide you wanted children somewhere in the far future. You can’t lose him. Not now. You’re not ready yet.

There are a hundred things that rush into your mind, and all of them are harsh words towards yourself. You verbally abuse yourself inside your own head, and even though you know this was out of your control, you still want to believe that this is somehow your fault. If only you were there to prevent this from happening. If only you were home to actually go over to the hospital and see your father. If only you could actually see him and properly say goodbye if he does- _instead of being hundreds of miles away from him_. _If. If. If._

You hate yourself.

You cave into yourself, digging your nails into your sweater and sobbing into your sweatpants. You roughly run your hand through your hair, pulling at it and hating yourself for needing some form of pain to keep you grounded in reality and completely losing yourself to your thoughts.

You hate yourself.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

**DV POV**

* * *

 

“I don’t know. He hasn’t tried to contact me nor have I seen him at all, all day. Is something wrong?” Kanaya puts down her knitting needles on her lap, while Rose looks on to you with worry on her face. 

You blow out a puff of air, roughly running your hand through your hair. “I honestly don’t know? He refuses to come out of his room. Actually, he never even fucking answered his door or told me to fuck off when I knocked incessantly on his door at various times throughout the day. He’s acting… Off.” You tell the girls honestly. You’ve visited the flighty broads’ lair, aka Rose’ bedroom, to try and see if Kanaya knows anything about Karkat’s strange behaviour. You know he usually goes to talk to her about most things. But looks like you’re out of luck. She’s just as clueless as you.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Rose inquires, pausing her own knitting. The two of them are currently on a knitting date in her room, and she was annoyed at you when you first barged in. But now she seems genuinely concerned.

“I mean. He won’t answer my texts or calls. I knocked on his door this morning and just shrugged it off when he didn’t answer. I didn’t think much of it at the time. Then, I came around at lunch again and was being an annoying asshole, hoping to piss him off enough to answer the door, but I got nothing. That’s when I got the feeling that something was wrong, and that was only further confirmed when he doesn’t return my texts and immediately denies my calls as soon as I try to call him.” You explain, nervously rubbing the back of your neck. You’re honestly not sure what’s wrong. You got the sense that he wasn’t feeling okay about the situation that happened with Gamzee, but this sudden avoidance of apparently everyone seems like an extreme overreaction. You can’t help but think that something else might’ve happened, and you wish he’d come out and talk to you. But he won’t, and you don’t know what to do.

Kanaya frowns, crossing her arms in that concerned motherly way she does. “He hasn’t been out of his room the whole day?” She asks. You nod. You had asked around if any of your friends have seen Karkat around, but all of that turned negative. It seems he never even came out to get any food for the whole day, and that’s the most concerning part for you.

Both girls were quick to pull out their own phones and try to contact him as well. Kanaya tries to call him, but a second after she hit the call button, her call was immediately denied, ringing only once. Now they look seriously worried, as worried as how you’re feeling right now.

“This is… Odd. Karkat hasn’t acted this way since…” Kanaya pauses, her eyes brightening, seemingly getting an idea. Then her face contorts to one of guilt and sadness and that doesn’t help with your worry department.

“... Since his mother died, right?” Rose finishes her girlfriend’s words, and they both exchange a look. Both girls are actually pretty close to Karkat, closer than you were to him. Kanaya lets out an explosive sigh.

“This might actually be really bad. Karkat’s prone to serious self-hating sessions, and it was definitely very severe when his mother first died.” Kanaya explains to you as you just awkwardly shift your weight from one foot to the other. “We need to get him out of his room and find out what’s causing this. I just hope it’s not…” Kanaya’s voice trails off, and there’s a heavy silence with the implication of her words.

You laugh nervously because you deal with emotionally charged situations terribly. Which is probably really bad since you’ll be absolute shit at trying to comfort your own boyfriend with whatever he’s going through. But you want him to open up to you too. “So like… How exactly are we gonna do that…?”

Kanaya averts her eyes, looking defeated. “I don’t know? I mean, I don’t know how to get him out _willingly_. If worse comes to worst, we might actually have to physically break into his room haul him out of it.”

You cringe at the suggestion. That sounds wrong and invasive to do if he is going through something and isn’t ready to open up about it yet. But if this persists and he continues to skip meals, that’s probably the only way to help him. What Kanaya described to you sounds like a serious issue of self-destructive behaviour. Which, you’re not entirely unfamiliar with. You’ve had your own serving of shitty counterproductive coping mechanisms.

“... What should I do then?” You ask nervously, biting your lower lip. Kanaya mirrors your movements and shrugs.

“I don’t know, Dave. I barely know what to do here either.” She tells you and the knot in your stomach only tightens. Fuck.

“Well. Fuck.” You voice your inner monologue. Kanaya nods.

“Fuck indeed.” She sighs again. “Look, I’ll try to talk to him tomorrow? We’re arriving at Ile Royale in French Guiana tomorrow but we’re only staying there for two hours so I doubt our chaperones have anything for us to do there. I’ll try talking to him through the door.”

You sigh defeatedly, shoulders sagging. “Alright.”

Rose looks at you sympathetically. “We’re sorry, Dave. We’ll get this fixed though, I’m sure.”

You nod and thank both girls for a little more insight into the situation. You close the door behind you and return to your own cabin dejectedly.

 

 

 ≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Kanaya tries to communicate to Karkat through his door the whole day. No fucking luck of getting him to answer at all though.

You and the girls have told the rest of the group about the current Karkat situation and they’re equally worried. Some of them each try their hand on trying to make contact with Karkat, but all of them turn out negatively with no answer from him whatsoever. Feferi described it as “it almost looks like he’s not even in his room anymore.” You don’t like thinking about the possibility of that one. The only way you know he’s alive and breathing is the fact that he continues to deny any calls as soon as he received them. This also tells you that he’s constantly holding his phone or at least has it nearby. He could be expecting a call from someone that’s none of you because he would’ve just turned his phone off so he doesn’t have to be bombarded with your constant calls and texts.

You can see that this is really stressing out some of your friends, with the whole Gamzee situation, and now this. Terezi has lost her usual jubilant self, even around Vriska. She just looks exhausted the whole day. She probably is, emotionally. You’re not too far off from her.

At this point, you’re seriously worried about what could be happening to him. He’s on your mind a good ninety percent of the time. At this point, it’s looking like your group won’t have a choice but barge into his room. Which you’d really rather not do, but it’s looking like it’s the last resort.

You have absolutely no idea what else to do.

So you just pocket your phone and continue to aimlessly wander the halls, trying to wrack your brain for any more ideas on how to get him to talk to you.

You’re mostly coming up with half-assed ideas you know won’t work, but you’re getting a little desperate here.

You glance by the cruise ship bulletin board with all of the local events happening around the ship. Where restaurants have ads posted alongside posters about classes and general fun activities are being promoted by being pinned on its surface. You do a quick glance at it as you pass by.

You walk past it without another thought before one poster you saw catches up to your mind and you have to stop yourself in your tracks. You backpedal real quick and look back at the board, searching for that one poster again.

When your eyes find it, an idea pops into your head. As you walk away after reading through the ad, you already have a vague plan forming in your head. And you’ll need your friends’ help with it. And it might really involve them breaking into his room and physically dragging him out. If it works out, then it’s worth it.

You really hope that it’ll work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyyy people. I'm obsessed with this fic so I actually made art for it :') Check out chapter 3 and chapter 17 again those are the only ones that have art up currently. Idk if I'll add more and if the style looks different each time that's bc I'm experimenting bc I hate my current style :')
> 
> Anyway. This one is also a kind of long one bois. See you in the next upd8, toodles~


	36. Talk To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 51 - At Sea  
> Day 52 - Ile Royale, French Guiana  
> Day 53 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All aboard sap central ladies and gentlemen. This gave me all three types of diabetes and rotted all my teeth out. The dentist had to painstakingly pull each one out. So have fun and don't die on me yet.
> 
> Also, go fuckin listen to talk to me by cavetown while you read. And then go listen to lemon boy afterwards. And then fool. Actually, just fucking binge watch cavetown songs. If you don't we're not friends anymore.

The nurse, whose name you find out to be Hannah, updates you on the situation.

The first night she had called, you stayed up all night, crying to yourself. And no matter how tired your eyes got, you couldn’t find it in yourself to go back to sleep. You guarded your phone for hours at a time, waiting for her to call again and tell you what happened to the operation on your father.

She doesn’t call again until sometime at seven in the morning. You’re quick to answer her at the first ring.

She then begins to tell you how everything went. She told you that the surgery finished just a few minutes ago and that she called you as soon as she received the message of your father’s stabilization. You sigh in relief, but you know you’re still not out of the woods yet.

Hannah tells you that the operation went well and they successfully stopped the internal bleeding. But she also tells you that even though he’s stable, they don’t know the side effects that the injury caused, post operation. They’ll have to wait until he’s awake to run some more tests on him and see what he needs to make a full recovery.

You, of course, already knew all this. You had done research on subarachnoid hemorrhage after her call to you last night. Once you’ve calmed down enough to think rationally again.

You thank Hannah, and that’s when she tells you her name since the two of you will be in close correspondence in the coming few days as she updates you on your father’s state of health.

At around ten, there’s a knock on your door that makes your whole body tense. You had almost forgotten about all of your friends and that you’re still on a trip with them. But you can’t muster up the energy to get up and off of your bed nor do you feel like informing them of your crisis. You can deal with this alone.

So you had stayed in bed, slipping and out of sleep, waiting for Hannah’s next update call. You don’t want to miss it, so you try your best to keep yourself awake at all costs. Easier said than done when you don’t have access to coffee. You planned to stay inside your room until you can resolve this yourself. Even if that means skipping a few meals. You’ve gone hungry before, it’s no big deal.

The next time someone knocks, it’s just past twelve, and Dave’s voice comes through the door. You closed your eyes and blocked out your ears. Hearing him wears down your resolve easily, but you’re too stubborn to let that happen.

He was being annoying on purpose, you know it. He wants you to get up and open the door and cuss him out for being annoying. Normal you would’ve done that. You’re not feeling so normal right now though.

You’re aware that something is wrong with you. You’re aware that your coping skills really need some work, maybe replace it completely even. But you feel a certain attachment to it. It’s the only way you know how to cope, and even if there is a better way of doing things, your stubborn personality refuses to acknowledge it. This is fine. This okay.

When he stopped knocking, you were relieved. But then he started calling you and you had to deny his call as soon as you got it. You can’t talk to anyone. Not right now. You can do this on your own.

He tried to call you multiple times, before giving up. You were back to your precious silence for a little while before you hear his faint voice, calling your name, from the other side of the door.

You feel your heart ache at his saddened tone.

But you deserve some alone time right now. After all of the shit you’ve just been through in a short period of time, you fucking deserve to some alone time. Everybody can go fuck off.

That’s what you keep telling yourself. But you know there’s a voice in the back of your head asking if this is what you really wanted. And you try to convince yourself that this is exactly what you wanted, to be left alone and deal with it on your own. But the fact that you have to repeat it to yourself to believe it to be true, tells you that you’re choking yourself with your own lies. But you ignore that feeling.

At around five in the afternoon is when you receive your next phone call from nurse Hannah.

She informs you that he’s awake now and that the doctors are running some basic cognitive functionality tests on him to see if there is any lasting damage done by the bursted artery in his brain. You ask her when you can talk to him and she promises you that she’ll call you again when the doctors are done with his tests. You thank her again.

So far, you’ve been in bed for almost fourteen straight hours without moving from your original spot aside from small shifts to get more comfortable. You counted it.

At around six at night, you receive a phone call and text from both Kanaya and Rose. Dave most certainly knows that something is wrong with you, and now he’s got Kanaya and Rose trying to reach you too. Meaning they know something is wrong too. It won’t be long before the rest of your friends find out.

A little past six is when Hannah calls you. You eagerly answer the phone but are disappointed when she tells you that you can’t reach your father right now. She tells you that he went right back to sleep after the testings and that it’d be rude to wake him up. You agree.

She updates you on how his testings went, though. She tells you that most of his cognitive functions are fine, but he seems to be suffering from extreme fatigue and a lack of the ability to concentrate on things as easily as before, along with a couple of painful headaches. She tells you that this is all normal after patients go through a subarachnoid hemorrhage, but that he’ll still be in the hospital for closer inspection of other side effects that may occur at a later date. You’re relieved that he doesn’t seem to have suffered too greatly because of the fall, but the idea that there still might be more side effects that could occur and last for a long time or maybe even permanently still hangs in the air.

After the phone call, you let yourself rest for a bit, actually properly going to sleep. You won’t be missing calls anymore and you’re sure that your father will be sleeping in for a long while to rest up after a major surgery. So, you let yourself drift off to sleep.

The next morning, you hear Kanaya at your door, bright and early. You expected it.

But just like Dave, you had ignored her and focused your attention on your phone, waiting for another phone call from the nice nurse that’s been keeping you posted on things for a little while now.

Various other friends of your come and stop by to try and talk to you or try to coax you out or even just communicate back, but you had ignored most of them.

A text Dave sends gives you pause though. It’s true that he cares a lot about you and you’re being unfair to him by keeping this all in. But you’re still quite upset by the series of events that just occurred and you still don’t want to talk about it with anyone. Maybe at a later date, you’ll tell him. When you’re okay. You can make yourself okay again by yourself, but right now, you can’t face any of your friends nor do you want their help on this matter. You don’t need to be consoled and told that this was a tragic event. You fucking know that. You don’t want anybody else’s pity at the moment. You can get through this on your own.

At around noon, Hannah calls you. She tells you that your father is finally awake again and that he just had his brunch, so he’s ready to talk to you for a little while. She tells you that he’s still pretty weak and fatigued though, so he’ll most likely fall asleep again pretty soon. She tells you he needs all the rest he can get and you agree with her.

She successfully gets you on the phone with your father though, and you end up crying again when you hear his voice. It feels like it’s been so long since you last heard him and it hurts your heart just how tired he sounds.

You try to keep the conversation short and right to the point so he can go back to sleep and rest.

He tells you that he’s sorry for making you worry and for making you cry, still making jokes about that time he found you crying over a boy. It sends a huge wave of relief to you that he’s still the same, that he’s still your dad and he’s still alive, even if you told him not to make jokes at a time like this. He laughs and says sorry again.

You don’t ask him about the fall. He can explain it all to you on a later date. For now, you just let him know how much you care about him and how much you love him and appreciate him being your dad because you don’t want to leave anything unsaid after a scare like that. He shares the same sentiment. But he also tells you to enjoy your remaining time on the cruise since you’ve only got a little more than a week left on it. He promises you that he’ll still be around when you come back to Houston and that he’s not going anywhere, so you shouldn’t worry about him too much.

Easier said than done. You’ll worry and worry and worry. Worrying is one of your many mastered talents. But you tell him that you’ll try to just to ease his mind.

Then, you say your goodbyes to him and he returns the phone to Hannah. She asks you how it went and you thank her again for all she’s done for you in the past few hours. She tells you that she’s just doing her job but that she’s very glad to be of help as a connection between the two of you even if you’re so far away physically.

You feel a bit better knowing your dad isn’t in the brink of death anymore, but you’re still feeling low on yourself. After everything that’s happened, you’re fucking exhausted emotionally, so much so that it’ actually bleeding into a physical sort of tiredness. You don’t want to get up.

You’ve also left your stomach empty for a whole day now, but you honestly still don’t have an appetite to eat anything.

You feel pathetic. You are pathetic.

And you find that those words come rolling back into your consciousness now that you’re no longer being occupied by worrying about your father’s health.

You hate yourself for being this way, for feeling this way, and for not being able to do anything about it or want to do anything about it. You let yourself beat yourself up about every negative thing there can possibly be and each time, you feel like you deserve it for being so pathetic in the first place.

You end up crying yourself to sleep again.

The next time you wake up, it’s four in the morning. You haul yourself out of bed and turn on the tv if only to have some background static noise to keep you company.

You still feel tired even if you know you got more than ten hours of sleep since you first fell asleep around four in the afternoon. It’s probably because you overslept that you’re so fucking fatigued.

What’s more is that fatigue is accompanied by a sense of hollowness. You’re tired of mentally abusing yourself but you don’t feel like doing anything else either. So you watch the television mindlessly, your mind floating in a different dimension. Thoughts pop in and out of your mind and you can’t seem to focus on any of them for too long.

You’re stuck in this stillness, between wanting to cry and being too tired to cry. Between wanting to sleep but feeling your body is too awake to let your mind rest. Between wanting to feel terrible for being the world’s biggest piece of shit and just being too tired to care that you’re the world’s biggest piece of shit. Stuck in an empty void of neutral nothingness.

You’re just tired.

You have no idea for how long you spent just watching tv, but you know at some point, you fall back asleep.

The next you wake up is by someone else.

This highly confuses you, and you blink blearily up at the forms beside your bed, trying to get your vision to focus. Right beside you is Feferi’s gleaming smile, a hand on your shoulder she used to shake you awake. Aradia, Jade, Sollux, and Eridan were also there, and you’re very confused as to what the fuck is happening.

“We broke into your room, silly!” Feferi tells you and you realize you said that out loud. You frown and slowly sit up, cringing at the sudden wave of dizziness that hits you when you move too fast.

“How the fuck did you break into my fucking room? And why the fuck are you all shitheads here? Wasn’t it pretty fucking clear that I wanted to be alone?” You growled, closing your eyes and willing the dizziness to go away. It doesn’t for a couple of minutes.

“You can just lock yourself up in here, Karkat! We’re all worried about you!” Jade pipes up, concern behind her round glasses.

“Plus, we’re here to pick you up! We’ve got somewhere to be right now.” Aradia then tells you and you glare at all of them.

“Will you just leave me the fuck alone? I don’t want to go anywhere.” You’re honestly feeling very tired and fatigued still, your whole body feels sore, and there’s a dull ache in the back of your head. That may be from oversleeping too much. And your stomach feels very empty too, but that’s because you haven’t eaten anything in two days.

Feferi tugs on your arm and you roughly tear your wrist away from her grip. “Cut the bullshit, KK. Will you just come already? I think when you see what we’ve got planned, you’ll change your mind.” Sollux groans and you pin him with a glare.

“We’ll drag you there if we have to.” Jade pouted, crossing her arms. “You’ll have to come out sooner or later anyway.”

“Just fucking try to.” You bite out bitterly, but you’re too tired to give a fuck about how shitty you’re acting. They’re right, though, but you still want to be a bitter asshole about it.

Jade, Aradia, and Feferi exchange glance before grinning at you.

In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to challenge these girls.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

They do in fact, try to drag you out of bed.

Long story short, they succeeded. 

The girls hauled you up on your feet and forced you to use your legs to walk while the other two boys snickered as they watched you from behind. Aradia and Feferi have their arms locked around either of your arms, pulling you forward, while Jade pushed at your back to keep you upright when you had tried to lean back and fall to the ground to make dragging you an even more difficult task for the girls. That was an honestly pretty fucking childish move. 

At this point though, you’ve resigned yourself to your fate. You follow them to wherever the fuck they’re taking you to.

 

After a bit of walking, the girls shove you into a restaurant with all the lights off. They check in with the staff and you’re led to a reserved round table up front where a small stage stood. The girls force you to sit down while you eyed each of them suspiciously.

“What the fuck is happening?!” You questioned, whisper-shouting as your companions take a seat around the white-clothed roundtable. There was very light chatter around the room and the stage was brightly lit up with box-like light sources sitting on either end of the stage, directed at the middle.

Feferi shushes you and Jade just tells you to shut the fuck up and watch.

You grumble, crossing your arms and frowning as you watched the stage. Food is served to you and you honestly couldn’t stop yourself from taking a few bites. You are pretty famished, but you know you can’t eat too fast or it’ll make you sick since you’ve gone without food for so long.

Staff comes onto the stage and sets up a small stool, an amp, a mic, and what looks like an acoustic-electric guitar on it’s stand beside the stool. The guitar was already hooked onto the amp and ready to be played. The crowd immediately quiets down, anticipating the whatever show is about to be put on.

Your mind is occupied by how curious you are with this whole set up. Thankfully, it makes you forget your issues at the moment and how much you hate sitting here in this moment, when you could be back in bed, feeling sorry about yourself.

You think you catch a glimpse of Rose’s short blonde bob at the edge of the stage before disappearing behind a black curtain.

You’re a little more than surprised when after a few minutes, Dave strolls out from behind one of the curtains and grabs the guitar, putting the strap around his shoulder before taking a seat on the stool. He’s looking pretty casual, a blue flannel with faint white lines across it is what he was wearing, the sleeves tucked up to his elbows.

He smiles sheepishly at the crowd, pulling the mic closer to him and adjusting it so he can speak clearly into it.

You lean into Harley again. “What the fuck is happening?” You more than demand this time.

The green-eyed girl huffs and crosses her arms. “It’s karaoke night at the restaurant. Dave wanted to get you out here so you can listen to what he has to say since you won’t answer your phone or open your door.”

You bite your lip, guilt seizing your stomach once again. You feel even worse now since you know him and your friends have been worried about you. But you’ve been an asshole, rejecting every single one of them without even an explanation as to why that is. And for what? Your pride? So that you can prove you can get through this alone? What do you even have to prove to your friends? You literally are the biggest piece of shit in the entire fucking universe. And beyond.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got a song in mind to play for you lovely audience, but there’s one person I’m dedicating this song to.” Dave speaks into the mic, and you know he’s looking at you. Even though the crowd doesn’t know because he’s wearing shades, you suddenly feel bashful and nervous and you can’t look at him. So, you stare at your mostly untouched meal in front of you.

He strums the guitar a couple of times to check if it’ in tune, adjusting it a bit every now and again. When he’s satisfied, he smiles back at the crowd. It’s so strange how natural it looks for Dave to be in the spotlight. Like he was meant to be there. “[I hope you enjoy it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHV1wZ7tzoA)” He says into the mic before focusing his attention back to his guitar.

He strums the first few chords, starting up the intro. It’s a soft melody that rings through your ears. It makes you feel relaxed and at ease, like a lullaby that puts you in an almost trance-like state. The sound was mellifluous, and it gives you the same feeling you would have when you’re sinking into bed after a long tiring day.

Then, leans into the mic again and starts singing the lyrics. You realize this is the first time you’ve ever heard his singing voice.

 

_“You don't have to be a hero to save the world,_

_It doesn't make you a narcissist to love yourself,_  

_It feels like nothing is easy it'll never be,_

_That's alright, let it out, talk to me.”_

 

His voice is gentle, a deep rumbling tune that just soothes you. His voice matches well with the music, and you can’t help thinking of the word ‘beautiful’ to describe it.

But it’s the lyrics of the song that really gets to you. You have a feeling you know where this is going and what he’s trying to convey. It’s a battle of wanting to feel terrible for ignoring him and making him worry against the desire to feel happy and touched by the quite honestly grand gesture of affection towards you. It’s a swinging pendulum.

_There’s one person I’m dedicating this song to._

 

_“You don't have to be a prodigy to be unique,_

_You don't have to know what to say or what to think,_

_You don't have to be anybody you can never be,_

_That's alright, let it out, talk to me.”_

 

Your heart feels heavy in your chest. For a moment, as you’re listening to him sing, it feels like the two of you are the only ones in the room. You know he’s keeping his attention on you, even with those gaudy aviators, watching your reactions. And your heart races at the thought of it.

 

_“Anxiety tossing turning in your sleep,_

_Even if you run away you still see them in your dreams,_

_It's so dark tonight but you'll survive certainly,_

_It's alright, come inside, and talk to me.”_

 

You have no idea how, but everything about this just feels so right. It tugs at your memory of silken sheets and warm embraces, of hushed sweet nothings, whispered between one another, and of the scent of apples and soap filling your senses. Of feeling warm and safe and vulnerable. You remember all of this even though it’s never and you associate it all with Dave even if it’s illogical to do so. You just do, and it feels right.

 

_“We can talk here on the floor,_

_On the phone, if you prefer, I'll be here until you're okay,_

_Let your words release your pain,_

_You and I will share the weight,_

_Growing stronger day by day.”_

 

The sense of familiarity only grows stronger. You know you’ve done exactly that with him before, but you don’t know how you know that because once again, you’ve never actually even done that with him.

Still, the sheer sense of _remembering_ _something_ is overwhelming, feeling like you’ve forgotten something important, but you can’t quite remember, and yet you know it was really important to you. Just out of reach. And it makes your chest ache and your stomach twist in ways unlike before, and you just want to _cry_. You don’t know why, but you just want to cry. You _remember something_. But you don’t know what it is.

 

_“It's so dark outside tonight,_

_Build a fire warm and bright,_

_And the wind it howls and bites,_

_Bite it back with all your might.”_

 

Everything in your body feels heavy, but somehow, it’s a pleasant feeling. A grounding feeling.

His voice resounds in your head, the words searing itself into your mind. It's a perfect song, with so much meaning behind it. It’s perfect.

Jade puts a hand on your shoulder and you suddenly remember that you’re not alone. You sniffled and wiped furiously at your eyes. You don’t know when you started crying, but you had. Jade fixes you a gentle, understanding expression, a foreign look on her face. But you appreciate the gesture nonetheless.

 

 _“Anxiety tossing turning in your sleep,_  

_Even if you run away you still see them in your dreams,_

_It's so dark tonight It looks nice, fall asleep,_

_It's alright, come inside, and talk to me.”_

 

The song slowly winds down to its conclusion, the soft tune of the guitar carrying out the last notes of the song. The music slowly ceases and once it’s done, there’s a moment of silence before the whole room erupts into applause.

You cover your face, trying to wipe away at the tears that just seems to never end. Dave gets up from stool, pulling the guitar from his body and setting it aside on its stand again. He smiles that crooked little side smile of his, waving to the crowd before disappearing back behind the black curtains at the edge of the stage.

Aradia tugs at your sweater, and when you look at her, she and the rest of the girls are standing up. Jade takes your arm, linking it together, but in a more friendly manner this time.

They escort you from your seat and move towards a door on the side of the stage. The room is fairly big, and you can see the black curtain leading into the stage on one side of the wall. Everyone is hustling around, staff members moving about and checking mics and sounds and lights, and you see a couple of more people milling about. You assume they’re performers for the night too.

Rose and Kanaya spots your group first and waves you over. The girls weave their way through the crowd and through the clutter of the backstage. It’s honestly kind of dim around the room, with dull white lighting at certain parts of the room, so you end up tripping on wires a couple of times. 

But as soon as you see him, you couldn’t stop yourself.

You tear yourself away from Jade and run straight for him, and he’s ready to catch you in his arms when you fling yourself around him, burying you face into the crook of his neck. His arms easily wrap around your torso, holding you close against him. You feel him bury his own face into your neck, and you love the comfort and warmth it brings you when you’re this close to him.

The solid feeling of him makes you take in a shallow breath in a futile attempt to keep yourself from crying again. You do cry again, but you keep your mouth closed, simply pressing yourself closer to him if that was even possible at this point. You can feel his hand running soothingly up and down your back and you can hear him shushing you quietly in your ear. All of this comfort and affection and care makes you cry harder, biting down on your lip to keep yourself from making any noise. But you hiccup every now and then anyway.

You would prefer staying with him like this all night. But you know you can’t, not here at least.

So you force yourself to pull away, wiping at your face with the sleeve of your sweater with one of your hands, while the other stays wrapped around his neck. When you finally look back at him, you notice that he’s flipped his shades up again and you can see his eyes. He smiles gently at you before leaning in and pecking at your forehead, right between your brows. You sigh in relief, relaxing in his arms.

“I wanna talk to you.” You tell him quietly, as he reaches a hand to tuck a piece of your hair behind your ear. His eyes are soft and you can stare at them all day.

“Alright. We’ll go to my room?” You nod and he brushes your bangs away to kiss your forehead once more.

You reluctantly pull yourself away from him, feeling your cheeks burn when you caught a glimpse of the amused and pleased faces of the girls at that sappy show of affection. You look at the ground, refusing to lift your head.

You hear Dave quietly tell Rose that he’ll be taking you to his room before slipping away from them, dragging you along with your hands interlaced with his.

The two of you slip out from backstage and he leads you to the exit of the restaurant. He signs the two of you out and before you know it, you’re walking down the brightly lit hallways of the cruise ship in comfortable silence.

You stare down at his hand and smile a little to yourself. You hold his hand a little tighter in yours.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

He brought you back to his room, letting you walk inside first before he followed behind you, closing the door quietly. You shift your weight from one foot to the other nervously, tugging at the hem of your sweater and staring at the ground.

He lightly leads you to the bed, where you take a seat beside him. He guides you back into his arms and you lean into him as he sits against the pillows, sitting at an angle. Not exactly lying down, but not sitting up straight either. You rest your head on his chest while he wraps his arms around you. He holds your hand with his other hand, mindlessly caressing your knuckles with his thumb. A comforting gesture you’ve come to adore.

“You don’t have to talk right away. I’ll be here all night long.” He tells you quietly, voice still holding that melodious quality to it. Now that you’ve heard him sing, you can’t help but find his every word like music to your ears even if he’s not actually singing in the first place. Fuck, you're so sappy.

You nod your head weakly, closing your eyes and sighing. You simply enjoy the warmth and the intimacy for a little while, listening to the constant beat of his heart inside his chest.

The fatigue from before catches up with you and you feel exhausted again. But being with someone else feels nice. Not being alone is nice. You don’t feel the empty hollowness you did before, you just feel tired.

You and he stayed like that for a long while in complete silence. You have no idea how many minutes,- or maybe even hours- has passed before you finally decide to talk. He seemed to content in just having you in his arms, waiting patiently for whenever you wanted to start talking about the recent events that just occurred.

You tell him about the scare you received a few days ago about your dad, and he holds you a little closer to him, despite never saying anything about it, letting you talk. You had opened up about your innermost feelings towards yourself and about the Gamzee incident and how that made you feel.

You tried not to cry, but admitting your shitty coping mechanisms and knowing the fact that they're shitty but not being able to stop yourself anyway is embarrassing to admit. You feel weak and pathetic which is highly irrational for you to think so. But you do feel this way and you have no idea how to stop yourself. So you ended up hiding in the crook of his neck, sniffling quietly while he rubbed soothing circles on your back.

It’s hard to admit something like this to him. You know he cares and he probably doesn't like seeing you beat yourself up over things like these. But his silence also tells you that he doesn't know how to approach this topic without sounding like a cliche inspirational poster. So he just holds you against him, kissing the top of your head while you held onto him, letting yourself cry quietly. Honestly, you're quite glad for the silence. The physical comfort is enough for you at the moment.

After baring your heart out to him, the two of you simply cuddled on his bed until your eyelids drooped and your body felt exhaustion settle in your bones once again.

You asked him if you could stay the night and he gladly and sincerely accepts your offer. The two of you shifted on the bed so he's facing you. You had scooted closer to him, resting your head on his arm and continuing to burying your face into the crook of his neck. You lazily wrapped your arms around him and held him close, and he does the same with you.

You fall asleep to the sound of his soft breathing and constant heartbeat just beneath his chest. You smell the scent of fresh apples and soap in your last moments of consciousness.

You feel like you've come home every time you're in his arms. Like you were meant to be there, fitting like the final piece to a puzzle.

You love him. You really do.


	37. Nearing The End Of Our Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 54 - Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o o f sorry for the long break, I got busy at the holidays, prolly should've given you guys a warning ^^" But yep. We're nearing the end and I feel weirdly sad and nostalgic having to say good bye to this series. It feels weird stopping writing this when I made it a routine to write it day to day. I've spent so much time on it. 
> 
> Thank you guys for making writing this a wonderful ride <3

Roxy coos at you when it's you who opens up Dave's door after her incessant knocking to get the two of you to wake up so you can join everyone else in the breakfast lounge before leaving the ship once more.

She had teased you about you staying over for the night, even if the two of you simply did innocent things together the night before. You told her to fuck off so that you and Dave can get ready in your respective rooms. She giggles but leaves the two of you to do your thing.

For the first time, Dave kisses you good morning before heading out to his own room. You had shyly thanked him again for what he did last night, even though he insists that it was just a small thing. He did more than that. He stuck with you and that means a lot to you.

It's not like you're apart for very long though.

The two of you see each other again in the morning, but you both silently and mutually agreed to spend some time with your other friends for breakfast, which is fine. You don’t have to spend every minute with each other.

Sadly, for this trip, Tavros and Gamzee opted out since your stoner friend still needs some time to recover.

The trip around Trinidad didn’t offer much that you haven’t seen or experienced before in the other places you’ve landed. Still, getting to roam around and see things you’ve never seen before is still interesting.

Roxy informs you that you have a half-day guided tour at the start with one more destination to fit in before having to go back to the cruise ship before it’s departure time.

The tour guides (another two different cars to transport all of you), meet you at the port of where the cruise ship is docked at approximately eight in the morning. The tour guides give you a quick overview of the capital city, Port of Spain, showing you around the place via cars. You got to see various important buildings with your tour guide in your specific car, Sofia, telling you little interesting tidbits about the places you see. They also take you to Queens Park Savannah, also known as the ‘largest roundabout’, to see impressive colonial homes great architectural designs you don’t really give a shit about. Still pretty to look at though.

After the quick trip around the city, your tour guides then lead you to Maracas Bay, but before arriving there, you stop at a lookout point. There, you can have a panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea and other surrounding bays. You also indulged in local snacks such as a seasoned fruit they called ‘chow’ around the place. Then, you’re on your way to the most popular beach in Trinidad. Maracas Bay was surrounded by lush greenery with rainforest covered mountains and a sandy beach with coconut trees lining the sand. The place wasn’t all that crowded either for being a popular beach and there were no high-rise hotels, mostly being untouched by tourism.

You get beautiful views of the beach and stay for a little while to enjoy the sun and the cool water. Some of your friends did decide to change and take a dip for a little while, you had about three to four hours on the site anyway. But some of you decided to stay dry, finding the hassle too bothersome to consider. You and Dave are the latter. Like almost always, you stuck around the shoreline with him, talking and just generally sticking close by each other. He got you to stop worrying about your phone in case Hannah calls again with some sort of complication about your father. He assures you that that won’t happen and confiscates your phone so you can enjoy the day.

You had punched him hard on the arm for taking away your phone, but you let him keep it anyway. You know if you had it in your possession, you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from constantly looking at it, in case of the nurse calls you for updates. Your father did insist on you enjoying the rest of your trip. You’re already so close to the end.

So you try your best and do just that, enjoying your trip and travels with your friends and your lovely boyfriend.

At noon, your tour guides round you up for lunch. You got to taste more foods which you enjoyed. Lunch went by quickly though and soon, your tour guides, Sofia and Julia, get you on the ca again to go to the suburbs of St. James, where you got another panoramic view at Fort George. It had an elevation of two hundred and thirty-six feet above sea level.

Then, your half day tour ends there. Your lovely tour guides leads you back to port at around one in the afternoon. Roxy tells you that there’s one more place you can go before five, the time the ship is set to leave. She lists a few places for you guys to pick from, explaining the things you can do in each one.

In the end, your group decided they wanted to visit the Asa Wright Nature Center before the end of the day. Your group makes it to the site and got to tour around the trails for a bit, seeing the various wildlife around the forest. Colourful birds and a few small critters were caught by the camera. The whole place had a natural tranquil feeling to it all, perfect for relaxing and unwinding.

By the end though, you stop at the main house where you and your friends lounged out in the verandah with cups of cocoa tea and other small snacks to binge on while you looked out to the view of the forest. The lush fauna here really was impressive.

You had picked a small table near the railings to get a good view of the outside. Dave, is, of course, sitting across from you, scrolling through his camera for photos.

“Karkat?” He calls your name once and you turn your attention to him. He’s got the camera pointed at you. “Smile?”

You exaggerated a sigh and an eye roll, but you hold your cup of tea close to you and smile lazily at him. He snaps a picture of you, grinning when he pulled away to see the results. “How is it?” You ask.

He pulls down his shades to wink at you. “Beautiful as ever, babe.” You scoff and he laughs quietly at you.

The two of you lapse back into comfortable silence after that, with you watching the slow swaying of tree branches in the wind. The occasional glimpse of a bird can be seen every now and then.

“We’re nearing the end of our trip.” You hear him say after a long while and you turn to look over at him again. He’s got his camera set on the table, chin resting on the palm of his hand and looking out to the view beside both of you.

That’s right. The cruise is almost over. You can’t believe all of the things that have happened in the past two months aboard the ship. So many fun memories with friends… Unforgettable sights were seen… And gaining a charming and caring boyfriend through it all. You sip your warm tea, staring down at the table as your cheeks flushed at remembering everything that has happened that has led you up to this point. “Yeah…” You muttered into your cup quietly in response. “We’re nearing the end.”

He flips his shades up onto his head to make direct eye contact with you. “So, what do you think of the trip as a whole then?” He asks you, but you simply shrug.

“I had a lot of fun. This was really a once in a lifetime experience and…” You trail off, remembering what you’re going back to after the cruise. “I’m going to miss everyone here like this.” You mutter quietly, staring at the brownish brew of your beverage.

That’s right. This could be the very last time you’re together with all of your friends like this. You’re going into your senior year just a week after this and you’ll all start being busy with school and preparing for post-secondary education or whatever your friends’ plans are after high school… Even if it’s not happening right now, there’s already a deep sense of longing inside your chest.

Yeah. You’ll really miss the time you spent onboard the cruise. You wish you could just relive it again and again. All of the happiness, the hilarity, even the drama and the frustration. You’ll miss it all. You’ll miss your friends. You already do.

“Hey…” He reaches over the table to put a hand over yours. But now that you’re thinking about it, more and more insecurities and sadness cloud your thoughts about the upcoming days. You can’t help yourself.

“Will we stay together after this?” You find yourself asking unconsciously, still staring at your teacup.

He puts a hand under your chin and forces you to look up at him. He’s frowning at you. “Of course. Why would you think this’ll end after the cruise is over? Unless it’s what you want…? I mean- I’ll respect your decision, whateve-”

You shake your head vigorously, frowning as well now. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. Of course, I want to stay together. Why wouldn’t I?”

He cups your cheeks holding you gently in his hands. He shrugs. “I don’t know?”

You sighed. “I just…” You start only to trail off. Why did that thought occur in your head? Why did you think that this was only something that’ll last until the end of the cruise? Didn’t you want to make sure you stayed with him as long as you can? Because he made you feel complete? So why would you ever think something so irrational like that? “It’s nothing. I was just being a stupid and insecure shithead. Forget it about what I said.”

He continues to frown at you though. “No, tell me. I want to know.”

You meet his gaze and flush at the way he’s looking at you. You feel even more embarrassed when you realize that he could probably feel your cheeks heating up with the way he was holding you. You sigh frustratedly, reaching over to pull his hands away from your face and hold it in your own instead. You stare at his hands. “I don’t know… I guess I’m just as insecure as ever. It’s stupid, I know, but I feel like… Like somehow you’ll realize it was a mistake to be with me or that you don’t actually feel as strongly for me as you claim to be and I just… It’s so fucking stupid and I fucking hate myself for even considering it, but I just… Can’t get it out of my head? It’s stupid. Like, really fucking stupid.”

“Hey… It’s not stupid if it’s bothering you, alright?” He tells you softly, voice gentle and caring and understanding. What did you ever do to be gifted with someone as wonderful as Dave? “I really like you, Karkat. And there’s no way I’ll ever consider you as a mistake or a regret, even if this doesn’t work out. And I’m determined to make it work so that doesn’t happen, alright? You can always talk to me about whatever is bothering you. It’s kind of one of my responsibilities as your boyfriend, you know? To be there for you.

You bite your lower lip hard, because holy shit. _What did you do to deserve someone like Dave?_ You interlace both of your hands together and give him a light squeeze. “Thank you…” You muttered to him quietly and he smiles brightly at you.

“But… Maybe you should talk to someone about the things you’re feeling. You’re really overly anxious about a lot of things you shouldn’t be worrying about, and I hate seeing you upset.” He tells you quietly and you lift your gaze up to look at him questioningly.

“What do you mean?”

He sighs, his turn to bite his lip. “I mean… Don’t take this the wrong way either but…” He starts, trailing off for a moment before sighing again, refusing to meet your gaze. “You do know that being worried about everything isn’t normal, right? And rationalizing why it’s normal isn’t normal either.”

You stare down at the hands that hold yours, lips pursed. You knew that. Kanaya tells you as much. Even your dad has told you that you worry too much and to take things easy. But you didn’t think you might actually need _professional help_ for it. But it does seem pretty bad when you look back at other instances normal things have induced anxiety in you.

“No, I get it…” You muttered in response. He squeezes your hand, and you smile gratefully at him. “I get it. I’ll find someone to talk to about it.” You tell him and he returns your smile. It warms your heart to see him look at you so fondly like that.

“Thank you.” He lifts one of your hands up to his lips and presses a chaste kiss on each of your knuckles. Fucking sap. You love it though.

The two of you continue to chat like that for a little while longer until the sun begins to set and Roxy tells you all that you need to make it back to the cruise ship. So one by one, you all gathered up your belongings and headed out to return to the ship.

The ride back was peaceful and calm and you had cuddled close against your loving boyfriend the whole way there. After returning, your group has dinner all together as usual and you’re struck again by how much you’ll miss this. All the chatter and the laughter. But you tell yourself you won’t beat yourself about the future now. You have to enjoy the present while it’s still here. You can worry about the future when it gets here.

After the day is over, Dave gives you back your confiscated phone. And just like he told you, you had received no miss calls from the hospital, meaning that your dad is still fine and stable and recovering. Hannah would only call you again if it was an emergency.

You thank him for always reassuring you that things will be okay. It seems that you really need to hear that a lot assuage your anxiety.

He tells you that it’s no problem and kisses you good night at your door like he usually does. You love it every time.

You had slipped into bed and turned off all the lights, but before you went to sleep, you do what you always do at the end of the day; check his instagram account. Actually, it’s been a little bit since you last checked it.

It makes your heart skip a beat when you realize that he’s changed his bio. Well, updated it to include one more tidbit of information about himself.

_Taken by @krkt.vantas_

Fuck, your stomach shouldn’t be doing gymnastics over such a small thing. It shouldn’t get you this giddy over something so minor as this. But you could feel butterflies in your chest anyway. You have no control over it.

So, instead, you just chose to bask in the pleasant feeling in your guts, taking that feeling with you when you go to sleep.


	38. I'd Rather Eat You Than Chocolate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 55 - Bridgetown, Barbados

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new years ya fuckers. And to celebrate the first day of 2019, have some davekat make-out sessions. You're welcome, ya filthy degenerates.

For the first time ever, you had woken up before Roxy came knocking on your door to wake you up.

Granted it was only a few minutes earlier before she came around, but you’re pretty proud of yourself for waking up ten minutes earlier than when Roxy came to knock on your door. You had woken up at six forty-seven in the morning and Roxy came around at seven sharp. It gave you enough time to get dressed and be ready since getting prepared doesn’t take all that much time for you. Brushing your teeth, washing your face, and getting dressed can easily be done in the time you were given.

So just as you were pulling a clean shirt on, there was a knock on your door. You had opened it easily, smirking up at the surprised face of Roxy, her fist up, ready to knock again. “Omg, you’re already awake! I’m so proud of you!!” She squealed and pulled you into a hug, something you didn’t expect. You awkwardly returned the hug though.

She then directs you to go to the breakfast lounge with some of the others she’s already woken up. There, you found Kanaya, Terezi, Sollux, Eridan, and John. You joined them on the table, sitting beside Kanaya and chatting with the group.

Slowly, more and more of your friends trickled in like they usually do. Dave had strolled in, still yawning, before plopping himself down on the seat beside you. “You’re up earlier than usual.” He casually comments.

You shrug your shoulders. Dave is usually on the table already before you get to the breakfast lounge. “Just woke up at the right time. I went to sleep pretty early last night. What about you? What time did you go to sleep at, shitbag?”

“Mm. Tasteful nickname, Vantas.” You snorted and rolled your eyes. “I slept at like, two in the morning, dude. Have a little mercy on me, man.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Why the hell were you up until two in the fucking morning knowing we’ll be leaving early today again?”

He smirks at you, shifting to rest his chin on the palm of his hand, facing you. “What if I told you I was up daydreaming about you?”

You scoffed, crossing your arms. You’re totally not heating up at the idea that he’d be thinking about you before he goes to sleep. That’s fucking cliche and really really fucking gay. 

_ You’re _ really really fucking gay.

Shit.

“I’d say you’re a big fucking liar and I’m ten seconds away from lighting your fucking ass on fire.”

He raised an eyebrow above his shades. “Using what exactly, Vantas?”

You mirror his position, leaning close. “You wanna fucking try me, Strider?”

Before he can shoot a clever quip at you, both of your attention are pulled away from each other and to Terezi who had slammed her hand down on the table. “Jesus christ, can the two of you get a fucking room? I can smell the ust even from here. You should probably remember that the two of you aren’t the only ones in the room!” Terezi chided both of you, a wide grin on her face.

Everyone who had seen it go down snicker and giggle at you and you suddenly really fucking hate your friends for being giant assholes. Even Dave is flushing lightly, looking away from you and rubbing the back of his neck. You hug yourself a little tighter, pretending to be crossing your arms.

Terezi cackles at both of your expenses. “I’m just joking, the two of you are cute as fuck together. But seriously, try not to follow Maryam’s and Lalonde’s footsteps when they first got together by making oogly eyes literally ninety percent of the time.”

You scowled at her. “Fuck you, Pyrope. Eridan and Sollux have more ust than anyone in this fucking table at the moment.”

Terezi cackles like a goddamn witch yet again while both Sollux and Eridan look fucking offended and disgusted at the same time. Their blushing says otherwise though. “Hey, wwhat the fuck, Kar?!”

You smirk, shrugging your shoulders. “You were gonna get called out sometime anyway, Ampora.” At least the awkwardness and embarrassment was moved from you.

Your group laughs while the two boys awkwardly move away from each other despite literally sitting beside one another.

After that entertaining start to the morning, Roxy takes you out to take a stroll around Bridgetown. Your crew leaves at eight in the morning, and the first place you visit is a historical site, to the dismay of everyone in your group. Roxy promises something super fun afterwards though.

The place was apparently George Washington’s house when he visited Barbados. The only place he went to outside of colonial America. It was a pretty bright pastel yellow home. Something you’d never expect from the first president of America. You hear Eridan snickering about how Sol would totally live in something like that if given the chance. Sollux then proceeds to hit the poor guy at the back of the head while Feferi huffs about the two of them being more friendly to each other.

You have a guided tour around the place to better appreciate the sights and the history behind them. You haven’t really been paying attention to your friends lately, with Dave taking up most of your attention, but now that things have settled down more between the two of you after everything, you notice a couple of things. Looks like new love is blooming among your friends again.

Nepeta has been sticking closely to Terezi for a little while now, you just dismissed it every time you saw them from the corner of your eyes. Even Vriska gives them space whenever Nepeta approaches and the scrouge sisters are practically joined at the hip twenty-four seven. On top of that is Aradia’s own interactions with Jade. Ever since you saw them partnered up in that tango lesson, the two seem to be closer than before. Interesting pairs are blooming beside already long-lasting relationships. It’s wonderful to see and you can’t help but smile.

“You’re smiling. What’s up?” Dave whispers to you, catching you off guard. You glared up at him. The two of you have your hands interlaced together since Strider apparently didn’t feel like taking pictures of old furniture, even if it belonged to the first president of the United States. You don’t mind. You think that was an excuse to hold your hand anyway.

“It’s nothing. Just… Interesting things happening around our friends I haven’t noticed before.” You answer, miraculously managing not to input a clever quip in there.

He raised an eyebrow at you, lips curling into an amused smile. “Are you seriously shipping our friends now, Kitkat?”

You sighed, rolling your eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t appreciate budding romance since it’s not your own, you egotistical shit stain.” He snorts quietly.

“I’m not blind, Vantas. I was just teasing you. Aradia and Jade have  _ something _ going on between the two of them, Aradia just taking time to work through what she just experienced and move past it before getting into another relationship. And Nepeta and Terezi are… I don’t know but something’s definitely happening between the two of them. And from what I heard, John’s trying to rekindle something with Vriska again.” 

Both of your brows crawl up your forehead in surprise at that last part. “Seriously? Even after the way their relationship totally blew up in their fucking faces in sophomore year?”

Dave shrugs. “I don’t know what to think, man. It sounds like they’re actually being mature adults about it and finally talking out the issue in the process finding out that there apparently may still be  _ something _ from both of them. And you have to admit, Vriska isn’t the same bitch we all met at freshman year. She’s radically changed over our junior year after she and Terezi worked out their differences and started hanging out again.”

You thought about it for a moment. But yeah, Dave is right. Vriska is still a class A major bitch, but she’s not outright malicious anymore. Just really, really fucking bitchy. But that’s to be expected from Serket. You sighed and shrugged. “I mean. If John and Vriska can make it work properly this time, I don’t mind it. I just don’t want John crying and getting his snot all over my fucking shirt again while he forces me to watch Nic Cage movies with him while he whines like a little bitch about Serket.”

Dave smiles a little at that. “You’re everyone’s counsellor when it comes to relationship woes, Karkat. You subjected yourself to this torture.”

You sigh again. “True. God, why am I such a fucking masochist? I always put myself in shitty situations all the goddamn time.”

The two of you continue to chat for a little while as you continue your tour around the house. It took about an hour to get through everything and Roxy has you moving again by nine.

The next spot proved to be as exciting as Roxy entailed it to be. It’s a submarine tour of the coral reef around Bridgetown, and you’re booked with priority seats. VIP, as they would call it. Everyone was buzzing with excitement, Feferi and Eridan especially.

You all got on board way before other passengers and the staff offered wine, and Jane had to slap Roxy’s hand from reaching for one of the glasses. Dirk and Jake take a sip of some of it though while Roxy whines about how Jane doesn’t need to babysit with her alcohol consumption. She wasn’t gonna get drunk inside a submarine. Jane counters that getting drunk in the most unconventional place was literally on her bucket list. It shuts up the twenty-four-year-old blonde.

You all buckle into your seats, one that’s directly behind the pilot of the submarine. Your group gets a wide view of the sea underwater at the front. Perks of having a seat in the same place as the pilot.

Feferi and Eridan take the seats directly behind the pilot and began chatting him up about anything under the sea related along with his work as a submarine pilot. The crew were nice and friendly, chatting with your group whenever spoken to. The whole place had a nice lively feel to it, although the only downside to it was that it was chilly and air-conditioned. You didn’t bring a sweater with you. Your boyfriend has you covered though. He lets you have his sweater since the cold didn’t bother him as much as it seems to be bothering you. Why he’s wearing a fucking sweater in the summertime is beyond you though. Still, you appreciate him sharing it with you. 

The trip was fun. Once everyone else was boarded into the submarine, the pilot announced that you will be moving and your group got to have a front seat view of the underwater corals. It was definitely an awe-inspiring sight to behold and your group was definitely entertained by the sights.

The pilot, Anthony, was a lively chatterbox about marine life, interjecting the actual tour guide multiple times with comments of his own or to make shitty sea puns which Feferi took great delight in. The actual tour guide, Max, seemed kind of annoyed that his job was being hijacked on multiple occasions. The other staff member on board with you at the pilot seat, Sasha, bantered with the pilot, countering every pun with one of her own. Max seemed overall miserable at the situation he’s stuck in for two hours. It was kind of hilarious to watch.

You got to see some cool marine life and fishes in the exotic coral reefs at the bottom of the sea. The tour guide tells you all about the ecosystem that can be found in the colourful coral reefs you encountered. You even got to visit an old shipwreck at the bottom of the sea floor. That one definitely got everyone interested, even the ones that tried to play down the coolness of the experience you all were going through. 

Dave took some pictures and videos, but it didn’t exactly come out as clear as he would’ve liked. So at some point, he just put down his camera and spent time actually enjoying the views he can see without the lens of a camera distorting his view on top of his shades.

It was calming and relaxing and as the day went on, it was easier to forget about your worries. Sitting beside Dave and watching the scenes underwater gave you a serene feeling. At that moment, you just felt content with everything. Content with your life.

It was wonderful.

The whole trip, in general, lasted for about two hours. You’d dare say that that had been one of the highlight things you’ve experienced on the cruise so far. Up there with ziplining.

Afterwards, Roxy and the chaperones took you to lunch, having arrived back at the surface around eleven to twelve at noon. The usual routine, you had some unique flavours you got to taste.

What came next got your group excited again though. Roxy and Jane specifically told you guys not to order dessert since you were apparently going somewhere special for that part. It ended up being a chocolate factory. A tour around it, to be specific.

It lasts for about an hour and your group had a reservation for a private tour around the place. You were given hair nets to wear while you get up close and personal with the production of chocolate in Bridgetown. Your tour guide was nice and knowledgeable enough, but the real highlight of the visit was getting to taste free chocolate through some of its various stages of production. 

Everybody looked to be really enjoying themselves and it makes you happy to see them happy.

“Hey, Karkat,” You hear Strider whisper in your ear, startling you. You glare at him while he just smiles slyly at you. “Do you like chocolate?” 

“What kind of shitty question is that, Dave?” You questioned, crossing your arms as you continued to walk around the facility, following your tour guide. “Of course I fucking do. What fucking brain damaged douchebag doesn’t?”

“I don’t.” He tells you and you’re mildly surprised. Until you realize it was a fucking ploy to flirt with you. “I’d really rather eat you than chocolate.” The fucking bastard.

You hit him on the head and told him to fuck off while he just laughed at your overreaction. He continued to tease you on your flustered state and you tried to ignore him. You hate the kind of effect he has on you by saying shitty, stupid, cliched things like that. You hate yourself even more for being a fucking sucker for romantic cliches and loving them anyway. Especially because it came from him in the first place.

Fuck.

He continued trying to flirt with you throughout the fucking tour. But there was one absolutely ridiculous stunt he pulled that made you literally almost punch him in the fucking gut. That or kiss him really hard. You didn’t have a chance to find out, you have better self-control than that.

“Hey, Karkat?” You had groaned and gave him your attention anyway, just like you’ve been doing for the past hour.

“What the fuck is it now-” You cut yourself off when you realize what he’s doing. Your cheeks immediately heat up again and you had to pocket your hands to hide the fact that you’re clenching them tightly. “Please stop molesting that piece of chocolate, Strider.”

He smirks slyly at you, continuing to lick at the piece of chocolate in his hand like it’s fucking ice cream. “Whatever do you mean, Kitkat?” He replies to you, acting all fucking innocent and shit. You hate that you can’t seem to take your eyes off of him either and he clearly knows this.

“It’s really not as sexy as you think it is with a fucking hairnet on, dumbass.” You tell him, but it’s still clearly having an effect on you which is all he really wanted.

He pops the thing into his mouth and  _ sucks _ , and it’s fucking melting on his fingers and your breath hitches in your throat and-  **_what the fuck._ ** “C’mon. I can totally rock a hairnet and make it look ‘sexy’, Kitkat.” He flips his shades up with his other hand purely just so he can wink at you.

You’re speechless when he pops the whole thing into his mouth and proceeds to lick off the excess in an honestly kind of seductive way and you fucking hate yourself. He’s still grinning at you mischievously and you can see it in his eyes how much he’s enjoying flustering the ever living  _ fuck _ out of you.

You make sure to groan as loudly as you can when you forcibly tear your eyes away from him, digging the heels of your hands into your eyes. You feel like you need bleach to clean your eyes now. “Fuck you, Dave.” You growled, walking ahead of him and flipping him off behind your back.

“Maybe when we’re more alone and not in the middle of a totally wholesome, family-friendly, tour of a chocolate factory, Vantas.” He calls after you as you weaved your way to the front of the group. You can hear the laughter in his voice.

You find yourself walking beside Jade and Nepeta, who are both giggling at you. You give them a death glare before walking faster until you’re ahead of everyone else but still behind the tour guide.

Holy fuck. Your heart is racing inside your chest and your face is burning. You hate yourself for the way the images inside your head just keeps repeating inside your head. You’re not sure if you regret seeing it or not. Then you mentally curse yourself for even considering the fact that you might’ve actually liked the stupid stunt he pulled. Well, you actually did though, but you don’t have to be honest with yourself. Shit, you’re not honest with yourself eighty percent of the time. This is going to change fuck all about that.

You’ll have to  _ lecture _ him later on when you get back to the ship.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

By lecture him, you mean make-out with him.

Your group managed to finish the tour and you had openly avoided him in spite of what he’s done to you. You went to other places after the chocolate tour and you flipped him off every time he tried to apologize to you about the stunt he pulled.

After having dinner, you made your way back to your cabins with Dave.  He’s still rambling at you about how he’s sorry and how much it sucks that you’re ignoring and avoiding and giving him the silent treatment the rest of the day and-

You shut him up by pushing him against the wall and kissing him hard. You linger for only a second before pulling away and pulling on his shirt to drag him into your room.

He’s got his shades pulled up his head by the time you’ve shut your door. “What-”

You don’t give him time to talk at all, pushing him back onto your bed before climbing on top of him and straddling him, occupying his lips with your own.

You kiss him longer this time, slower. And this time, you give him time to reciprocate and reciprocate he does. Eagerly too, and it makes you smile. You crawl your hands to intertwine around with him and he follows your movements, wrapping around yours. The two of your hands fit together almost like two pieces in a puzzle.

You kiss him slow and kisses you back, following your movements, a constant push and pull between the two of your bodies, in sync with one another. His lips are soft and warm and wet and you love every bit of it. You love every bit of him. You open your mouth for him and his tongue slithers into yours, exploring every inch of you, tasting you, and holy shit does it feel so good. You could do this all night.

The two of you stay pressed up against one another for what feels like hours, but you need to pull away for a breath at some point. When you do finally pull away, you do it quite reluctantly, but you’re pleased with the dazed look you managed to put on your boyfriend’s face.

“What was that for?” He questions you, breathless, with half-lidded eyes. He’s smiling lazily at you and you doubt he even realizes it.

You shrug casually. “Acquiring my fucking prize after the torture you put me through.” You tell him with a smirk. He chuckles underneath you and it makes you smile wider to feel it reverberating across his entire body.

“It feels like I’m the one that got rewarded.” He laughs, squeezing your hand softly. You lean down and quickly peck him on the lips, short, sweet, and chaste.

“Don’t expect this to happen often, Strider.” You purred and he untangles your fingers from his to wrap around your shoulders and pull you closer. 

“Then indulge me a little longer, why don’t ya?” He pulls you down to kiss you again, shifting to exchange positions with you. He kisses you more fervently this time and you’re enthusiastic to return it. You easily slide your arms around his shoulders.

He tangles his fingers with your hair and tugging lightly. You couldn’t help but groan, and he pulls away to grin mischievously at you. Your cheeks heat up and you glare daggers at him. He doesn’t say anything though, simply moving to kiss along your jawline, light and feathery. You know what he’s doing though, he’s testing the waters, seeing what you’re comfortable with, which you find really sweet and considerate of him. 

This is the first time the two of you had kissed like this since Ilhabela. This is your first time going this far with someone when making-out and quite honestly, you’re enjoying this too much. It feels good having someone show this much attention and affection to you. You shift your neck just a bit to give him more room and he’s quick to pick up on it and respond to your movements.

He messes with your already messy hair, kissing more insistently along your neck. Everything feels overheated and everywhere he’s touching you feels like it’s burning, in the best way possible. 

You bite your lower lip hard when he gets more heated with his kissing. He’s clearly trying to get you to make another noise, but you refuse to give him that satisfaction, as much as you can. He pulls your sweater down to reveal more skin, moving to trail kisses along your collarbone. You suck in a breath when he sucks on your skin lightly before licking over the spot and doing it again. A whine finally escapes you and you can feel him smile into your skin.

That’s going to leave a mark.

Your grip on his shirt tightens and slowly, he laughs, hiding his face into the crook of your neck. “What’s so fucking funny, douchebag?” You growled lowly and his arms tighten around you, holding you close.

“Sorry.” He mutters, nuzzling into you affectionately. “You make cute noises. Shit, you’re just too cute in general.” He laughs quietly again and you lifted your hand to hit him on the back. He only continues to laugh and hold you close in response.

“Nice job killing the fucking mood, shit stain.” You sighed, deciding to just bury your face into the crook of his own neck and return the hug.

“Not like I was gonna score anyway.” He replies, voice muffled by your sweater. 

“You never know.” Was your simple reply. He pulls away from you to raise an eyebrow at you, an easy smile on his face. You know you’re wearing a similar expression and you couldn’t care any less.

“Is it too late to try that again then?” You rolled your eyes at him and lightly push him off of you. He complies, getting up. You sit up and run your fingers through your hair, attempting to at least tame it back down a bit.

“Yes, it’s too fucking late. Actually, it is getting kind of late and we’re supposed to leave again in the morning. You need to go.” You stand up and pull on his arm to get him to stand up too. He groans, pouting like a child and being generally petulant. He still makes you smile even if he’s like this. It's endearing.

“C’mon. You can’t stay here, go sleep in your own bed.”

He pulls his wrist away from your hand and crosses his arms. “Why not? We’ve slept in this very same bed before. And I’m not gonna attack you in your sleep, so why can’t I just sleep here with you?”

You raise a brow at him, crossing your own arms. “Do you seriously want to sleep with me?”

He smirks at you and you roll your eyes at how fucking immature he is. “Yeah, I do. Is that so bad?”

You sighed explosively, letting your arms drop. “Fine. Whatever. You can stick around if you want, I don’t really give a shit.”

He grins and takes your wrist, pulling you back down on the bed. You groaned and tried to push him away, swatting at him. “Ugh, stop it, I need to take a shower, I’m fucking filthy. If you’re sleeping on my bed, you gotta freshen up too, you ignoramus shit head”

He laughs and nuzzles into the back of your neck. “Can I join you in the shower, Kitkat?”

You groaned even louder, putting both of your hands over your face. Your face still feels heated. “Fuck no. Not tonight.”

“Are you suggesting that it might happen in the future? In the near future hopefully?” He continued to say in a teasing manner.

“If you’re a good boy, maybe. I highly fucking doubt your ability to stay well behaved though.”

He laughs one more time before finally letting you go. You jump straight up and grab some clothes to change into before heading for the bathroom. You do your routine, take a shower, brush your teeth, all that shit. Then you get yourself all ready for bed, pulling on a shirt and sweatpants before leaving the bathroom and joining him back on the bed.

“Your turn in the bathroom.” You tell him, throwing him a spare pair of clothes before he stands up, leaving his phone on your bed and smiling at you. He kisses your forehead and messes up your hair again while you rolled your eyes at him.

“Won’t take long.” He tells you before disappearing into the bathroom.

Your boyfriend is a secret sap and you really love him for it.

Once both of you are all dressed up and settled in bed, he cuddles you close. You smile, nuzzling into him and fall asleep peacefully in his arms. The scent of apples and soap fills your senses before you black out.


	39. One Last Stop On Board Skaia Cruise Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 56 - St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man I'm just prolonging this before all of this ends ;-; Have some more cliched fluff XD

It’s your last trip on board the cruise ship.

You wake up lazily, still wrapped up in Dave’s arms. “Morning.” He greets you softly when you began to shift around to pull away and look at him. He drops his phone screen first onto the bed and focuses his attention on you. He smiles. “Did you have a good rest, sleeping beauty?”

You rolled your eyes at him. “How long have you been awake? Wait, what time is it even? Why isn’t Roxy banging down the door yet?”

“Relax, it’s only eight thirty. We don’t dock at St. John’s for approximately another half an hour.” He tells you, moving his hands to run through your hair gently. “And don’t worry. I haven’t been awake for long, just woke up about ten minutes before you did. I wasn’t being creepy and staring at you while you slept.” You raise an eyebrow at the inclusion of the last sentence at all, but you don’t probe him on it.

You simply sighed and settled back down into his arms, nuzzling into his collarbone and breathing in his now familiar scent. 

Right. The last stop of the cruise before it makes its way back to Fort Lauderdale, California is at St. John’s in Antigua and Barbuda. The thought that this will all be over in only a few days saddens you. You know you’ll still see your friends again when school starts up again, but it won’t ever be the same as it is now. You closed your eyes and hugged him tighter, afraid that this will end too even though you know the chances of that happening is slim. Anxiety sucks.

“I’m not ready for all of this to end yet.” You murmur, mostly to yourself, but audible enough for your boyfriend to hear. He continues to pet your head, using his other hand to pat your back comfortingly.

“I know. But we’ve still got a whole year ahead of us to continue making memories with our friends before things have to really end.” He tries to assure you, and you appreciate it, but it’s not making you feel any better about it.

“I know that. It’s just… This has been a life changing experience, honestly. I don’t want it to end. It just won’t ever be the same again.” You reply quietly back, voice muffled by his shirt with the way you’ burying your face into him.

He comfortingly runs his hands up and down your back and you sigh contentedly at the simple gesture of affection. “I know. So let’s enjoy it today as much as we can, alright? Don’t think too hard about it, you might just miss what’s happening in the present if you think too hard about the future and endings. It’s not the end yet. Let’s enjoy it while it’s still here, right?”

You listened to his heartbeat, pressing yourself as close as you can against him. He’s right. You smiled softly and nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. Thank you, Dave.”

You can feel his chuckle reverberate in his chest. Soft and warm. “What for? I didn’t do anything.”

“Thank you.” You simply repeated. “Thank you for everything.”

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Roxy comes around at nine to wake you up only to find that you’re ready to go again after her first knock at the door. Dave left your room to change into proper clothes but afterwards, both of you made your way to the breakfast lounge side by side. 

The morning went as usual, and you find out that you’ll be spending most of the day at the beach. There wasn’t much to see around that was very impressive and Roxy and the chaperones wanted you guys to enjoy the last day as much as you can. So they brought you to Ffryes beach for a soak under the sun.

Everyone was in the highest spirits they have been the whole trip. Looks like everyone wanted to make this last day out count. Everyone went about their way doing their own activities around the beach. Terezi, John, Vriska, and Jade were playing beach volleyball. There was an actual net set up at this beach this time. Nepeta, Tavros, Gamzee and Equius banded together to create the biggest sand castle they can with a single bucket and shovel they found lying around. Eridan and Sollux was who knows where, and Rose and Kanaya were chilling by the nearby bar, sipping tropical beverages. Ten dollars on Rose’s drink being alcoholic to some extent. Feferi and Aradia seem to be on better terms now and had gone off to swim around on the beach.

You stood around near the shore, but just far enough that the water didn’t touch your toes. The white sand under your feet was soft and warm, but not scorchingly so that it hurt to walk on it without slippers on. Dave had been walking around the beach with you since you’ve both made it known that the two of you aren’t exactly fans of getting wet in salty and sticky water.

Really, the only thing the two of you were doing was collecting shells you find around the shoreline. The beach wasn’t crowded and there were really only a few people around so it was nice and quiet. The sound of the beach, the roll of the waves, and the squawks of ocean birds being the only sound you can hear.

“Hey, come check this out,” Dave calls out to you while you were simply watching the waves roll by in front of you. The two of you had walked a significant ways away from the others, having ended up on the far right of where the beach ended with rocks that slowly grew in size beside a rocky cliffside.

He was only a few meters away from you, leaning down near some of the craggy rocks. When you neared him, you were surprised to find him watching a crab skitter along the surface of the rock, moving ever so slowly with its spiny legs. “Aren’t crabs your favourite animal or something?”

You knelt down beside him and watched the little orange crustacean crawl over the jagged edges of the slick, wet surface. “Where did you hear that from?” You questioned, reaching a finger out and poking it’s back. It seems to not like that as it tries to clip your fingers with its pinchers and you have to pull your hand away.

He shrugs beside you, watching you with mild amusement. “I think I remember Terezi tell me in passing at some point.”

You glance over at him with a raised brow, keeping your hands on your knees. You don’t want to lose any fingers today. “And you just happen to remember a stupid fact mentioned in passing like that?” You watch his shoulders tense and red creep up his face. You smirk at his reaction.

“So I’m right, crabs are literally your favourite animal?” He says instead, forcing out a clearly nervous laugh. You roll your eyes, but you’re smiling anyway.

Still a little hard to believe that Dave of all people has been crushing on you from afar like a shy teenage girl for years now without you ever noticing it. Granted, he’s a fucking master at apathy and you didn’t know him well enough before to see through the bullshit he spews ninety percent of the time. Every time you remember just how long he’s liked you for continues to surprise you every time. You get this excited fluttery feeling in your stomach and you can’t stop yourself from instinctively smiling. You’ve been doing a lot of that lately. Smiling.

“Yeah, so what? What’s your favourite animal, fuckass?” You shoot back at him, your eyes never leaving the crab as it moved along. Who knows where it’s destination it, but you quietly wish it good luck on its journey.

He seems to think about it for a little while, humming into consideration. “I guess I like crows? Shit, I don’t really have a favourite animal per say… But when I used to live in the apartment, there was a lot of crows around our area. There’s one, in particular, that would always visit me in my bedroom window, pecking at the glass until I just left my windows open constantly in case he wanted to pay me a visit. I called him Steve.”

You look over at him, genuinely interested to hear more about his life, even before his move with the Lalondes. “Steve? Seriously, Dave? How did you even know it was the same crow every time?”

He meets your gaze with a playful smile on his face. “He was blind on his other eye. It was all greyed out and foggy looking. Little fucker was smart too, he only wanted to be taken a picture of with his good side. He’d always try to peck me whenever I tried to take a picture of him with his other blind eye. I don’t even fucking know how he knew that every time I tried since he can’t see out of his other eye.”

A mental image of a younger Dave Strider pops into your mind, with his little polaroid camera and a little crow he’s befriended. It brings warmth to your chest and you want to see him in his tiny little form before puberty hit. You wonder idly if he’s even got any baby pictures considering the type of guardian he had to live with. You’ll ask Dirk sometime.

While you were thinking to yourself about this, you hadn’t noticed him stand up and start to pull his shirt off and over his head. The crab the both of you had been observing has scurried off further into the rocks you can’t reach. You stare at him questioningly. “What are you doing?”

He throws off his blue shirt on the soft sand beneath the two of you. “What do you think?” He pulls off his shades as well and gently sets it down on top of his discarded clothing. “We’ve been sticking around on the shore almost every time we go to a beach. Might as well change things up and take a dip into the water since this is our last time being on a beach for the rest of the summer.”

He pulls you up on your feet and grins at you before moving on to the edge of the shore, letting the waves roll across his feet. “You comin’ or not?” He calls out to you as he slowly wades into the water. You roll your eyes again before pulling off your own shirt and leaving it beside his on the sand.

You join him in the water, shivering a little at the cool temperature of the water in comparison to the sand you were just walking on. He waits for you until you’re at the same level, the water reaching just above both of your knees. He smiles softly at you, taking your hand and guiding you further out into the ocean.

The two of you spend the morning together, away from everyone else, just fucking around in your private section of the beach. The two of you get into a splashing war and just generally have a slow game of tag through the water.

When that got tiring, the two of you had simply relaxed in the water in your own ways, beside each other. You’ve gotten to float on your back, staring at the white wispy clouds above you while Dave is off doing who knows what. 

For a moment, you wonder what would’ve happened if you really had been stubborn and stayed at home like the introverted loser that you are. The thought makes your stomach twist and you’re infinitely glad you did come. You think back to what Dave had told you when you woke up. He told you not to worry about the future because it’s not here yet, and you suppose you can apply the same to thinking back at the past because it’s already done and there’s nothing else you can do about it. Worrying about it is useless. So you simply remember the past two months aboard the ship, remembering each day fondly.

Until your train of thought is interrupted when you feel someone yank you down by your torso and underwater. Your startled screech was cut short as your head went under and you had to keep your mouth shut from gulping gross ocean water.

Dave grins mischievously at you, arms around you and keeping both of you under. You glare at him through the clear the water and cross your arms stubbornly, but otherwise, don’t make much of a movement to get away from him. His hair was floating around in the water and you’d laugh if you can at how goofy he looks. But his sharp red eyes under water keeps you distracted enough to hold in the laughter easier.

He simply grins at you in response before pulling you closer and wordlessly pressing his lips against your own. You don’t even have to think about it, you automatically close your eyes and kiss him back, your arms untangling to loosely cling on him.

The kiss doesn’t last long at all but it was short and sweet and fucking cliche, you just can’t help but love every moment of it anyway. It was impractical as all fuck, but you enjoyed and appreciated the thought anyway.

The two of you make a point of going back to the group before twelve noon to catch lunch with everyone else. Seems like everyone was mixing it up for the last little day because instead of going to a fancy restaurant like you always do, your chaperones have you set up a huge picnic made up of three different big blankets under the shade of a bunch of palm trees. At least you don’t have to change just to have lunch. Your group can go back to their beach activities as soon as they’re done.

A bunch of seagulls and a few other birds have landed around and near your picnic, eyeing your food. They seemed to be used to being near people because they weren’t exactly afraid to come near enough around the edges of your blanket and steal small pieces of food.

At some point, Dave just casually starts tearing off and throwing pieces of the hotdog buns on the sand where the birds immediately flock around and try to get the piece of food first. Sooner or later, once everyone had had their fill of lunch, they took to following Dave’s lead and feeding the birds. You’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to do that and those who did participate got chided at a bit by the chaperones but was otherwise not stopped with their activities. John, Jade, Terezi, Vriska, Gamzee and Tavros were the biggest offenders in feeding the birds leftovers.

Soon enough, the birds were getting bolder and started to actually fly over your head and pick food off of your hands when you raised it. Everybody seemed to be having fun and finding amusement with the birds so you figured it couldn’t be that bad.

Once your group was done with lunch, John declares an all-out war and arms everyone with a bunch of water guns from that time you all played chicken fights at the pool back at the cruise. This time though, he makes it ‘official’ or some shit.

It’s like laser tag but with water this time, with everyone running around and laughing and getting wet.

Your group does this for the rest of the afternoon until Roxy calls all of you in to do one last activity before your group had to head back to the cruise ship. This definitely got everyone’s attention and you all gathered up your things to follow your chaperones.

At three p.m., once you’re dried and dressed up again, your group heads to a facility with a where a bunch of flora and fauna are kept. You thought it was the usual botanical garden but was pleasantly surprised when your tour guide starts briefing you on  _ stingrays _ . You find out that you’re apparently going to get up close and personal with them, and that has got everybody excited once again.

After being given a rundown on what’s about to happen and how to handle the stingrays, your tour guide gets you all aboard a speed boat. Everybody starts up excited chatter around you and you’re just happy to see everyone enjoying themselves to the very end of your trip.

Your tour guide, Noel, drives you to a shallow pool with white sands and coral reefs all around you. Noel hands each of you snorkel gear and one by one, you take a dip into the water. Most of the stingrays were swimming about at the bottom of the pool along the sand so you’re all careful not to step on them. They’re pretty obvious to see, with grey to brown shades of colour and long, wide, floppy bodies, which was good. 

Noel encourages you to touch them and get up close and personal but the first person to try to actually touch any of them was Nepeta. She even holds Terezi’s hand afterwards, guiding her hand underwater so she can feel the smooth skin of the sea creature. The grin on the blind girl’s face was blinding.

Slowly, everyone got the hang of things and the stingrays came up from the ground and swim along the surface. Nepeta, Terezi and Aradia get a picture taken of them holding the stingray above from below and that photo is definitely a keeper. 

Rose had gotten your tour guide to man the camera after convincing Dave to let go of it and enjoy the experience as well. He slips off his sunglasses and slides into the water from the speed boat.

It was definitely another experience that was hard to beat.

The tour only lasted for an hour and a half though, and it still feels like time flew by way too fast. But everyone was happy and content by the end, even though it’s a little sad when you all had to go back to the speed boat and say goodbye to the sea creatures knowing this is the end of your day.  But before you left, you got Noel to take one last group picture with the stingrays all around all of you.

By the end, your group gets all cleaned up again after taking yet another dip into the water. Then, you all start packing up for the day at four thirty to catch the ship before it leaves as the sun sets.

You find yourself taking a moment to just stare at the beach, hazy pinks, oranges, reds, and purples, all mixing together in the sky. You stand around the sand with your sneakers on, continuing to reflect on the things that have happened like you’ve been doing for the rest of the day. Flashes of memories keep coming up to your mind, and they make you smile.

The first day you walked into the cruise ship and Dave was being a smug little bitch about your reaction. That party night when you noticed Dave staring at you. The stupid pirate hat scavenger hunt. The first photo he posted of you on his instagram after Cartagena. The first time the two of you got into the habit of reading together in the Panama Canal. The zip line with everybody’s catchphrases and the apprehension in the staff at all of your group’s excessive cussing. The time you learned how to kitesurf in Manta and you’re only now realizing was him probably being  _ honest to god _ trying to prevent Nepeta from getting close to you. The drama with Rose getting completely hammered after a fight with Kanaya. The stupid beauty you got duped into doing. The first time you admitted your feelings to yourself. The time Dave’s instagram followers literally started shipping the two of you. The prank wars John pulled and the hilarity that ensued. The first time he kissed you and fucked it all up… The pool party and chicken fights, the laser tag games. The ridiculous drama between Aradia, Feferi, and Sollux. The masquerade ball and the time you heard his story.

The kiss behind a waterfall in Ilhabela.

It still catches your breath.

Him taking you to a cafe/library in Rio De Janeiro as an official first date and solidifying your status as boyfriends. The things he told you at the beach in Buzios, Brazil. The ridiculous way your friends found out that the two of you were together and Dave getting slapped by Lalonde. The dance lesson you took with him. The time you isolated yourself after the incident with Gamzee and your father back home. The time he sang to you in front of a crowd. All the way up to his stupid as fuck stunt at the chocolate factory and to today. There’s been so much that has happened, it warms your heart and makes your insides squirm pleasantly. 

You were too busy with your thoughts to notice Dave had taken a spot beside you, hands in his pockets, watching the sunset with you.

“Did you have fun?” He asks you quietly. You glance at him, a bit startled at his presence but smile anyway and shrug. 

You think about it for a little while, staring out at the ocean. “Yeah, I did.” You reply just as silently. “I tried not to think about the ending like you told me to. I enjoyed my day, even if it is ending now. I enjoyed my day with everybody.” You glance back at him, examining his features under the light of the sunset and flushing lightly. Something about this reminds you of that false kiss back when the prank wars occurred and it just makes you smile at the stupidity of both of you. He looks back at you, a strange easy smile on his face. You feel stupid and cliched saying the next words. But it’s true and you have to say it. “I enjoyed my time with you.”

His grin grows and lifts a hand to touch your cheek. You bite your lip but lean into his touch all the same. “Don’t sound like this is the end of everything.” He tells you in an almost teasing manner. He pulls you closer until you’re breathing the same air as him. He grins mischievously at you. “This is just the beginning.”

Then, he kisses you.

And you decide then that it's still the best thing that has ever happened to you on this trip.


	40. A Summer To Remember, A Summer We'll Never Forget

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 57 & 58 - At Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're done. But don't worry we've got an epilogue. I'll say my official good bye then, but for now, the fic is fucking complete!!!
> 
> I'm working on another fic rn, but idk if I'll ever finish it but I'll try- it's more mature this time I guess >-> As mature as I can try anyway bc I suck at anything remotely having to do with adulthood. Basically, it's nsfw.
> 
> Anyway, sorry that this is short ;w; I hope I brought you happiness and laughter with this fic! That's all I ever wanted.

The ship is set for California once you've left the docks of St. John's, Antigua.

A sense of melancholy settles with you at the thought of going back. That this is all finally going to be over. But it doesn't fill you with dread anymore. Dave and the others were great at easing that little bit of pain in your chest. Saying goodbye to anything is always hard.

Dave had escorted you back to your room after everything that night, but you’re the one to invite him to stay in your room. You didn’t feel like being alone in the dark with your thoughts. He kept you up with his rambles just like you had asked him to, and you liked hearing his voice over your own stupid, anxious thoughts. You fell asleep peacefully. Even though he did tease you about falling asleep while he was talking to you when the both of you woke up again in the morning.

It’s only two days at sea before you make it back to the port at California. The last night tomorrow is the big farewell party before making it back, a thank you to the passengers for choosing Skaia Cruise Lines. But for today, it was just another lazy day for you and for your friends.

You spent most of the morning hanging around with your boyfriend, not bothering to get out of bed aside from getting brunch together. You read to him like you usually do and you watched movies occasionally. Turns out, your boyfriend really likes physical affection and cuddling, which is honestly a bonus to you. His permanent residence is apparently the crook of your neck now. He refuses to fucking leave you alone, and you’re sure at least eighty percent of his reason for doing so is because it annoys the absolute shit out of you.

“Don’t you get bored just sitting around here, watching romcoms?” He asks you while he lazily tries to wrestle the remote away from you while he’s behind you.

“Hey, I fuckin let you watch one of your stupid action films, let me watch my own in peace, you insufferable jackass.” You snapped back, raising your hand with the remote as far away as you can from him.

He groans into your neck, apparently deciding to give up on the fight to get the remote away from you. “C’mon, Karkat. Let’s go outside and take a fucking stroll or something. I can’t sit around all day like this on your fucking couch. I can’t skip out on leg day, man.”

You scoffed and elbowed him hard enough to make him grunt in pain. “If you want to go out so badly, then get the fuck out. I’m not your fucking owner who has a responsibility to take you out on a walk like a fucking dog.”

You can’t see him from the angle you’re in, but you know he’s pouting at you. “It’s not that fun without you, Kittykat.” He whines, and you roll your eyes.

You aim the remote at the tv and shut it off. “If it’s going get you to shut the fuck up and stop whining like a bratty little eight-year-old girl with pigtails and a pink tutu, _fine._ Fine. I’ll go with you.”

He nuzzles the back of your neck affectionately, and you can’t help the flush that colours your face. He recently found out you’re kinda sensitive there and he’s been abusing it all day. “Thank you. You’re so sweet to me, Karkitten.”

“Fuck off.” You grit out, but he simply laughs at you, pressing you closer against him. He presses feather like kisses along the nape of your neck and you, in response, try to stand up and get away from him, but he keeps you grounded. “Fuck _off.”_ You groaned.

Eventually, he does let you go and you stand up and glare daggers at him. He simply grins, shrugging his shoulders all innocent like. You roll your eyes again and move to put on some shoes. “Fuck you, Strider.” You quipped back just as he was standing up as well and followed you to put on his own shoes.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He teases back and you flipped him off before leaving your cabin door.

He follows you out the door, closing the door. But your attention is solely to the ocean right now, and it seems like so is everyone else. “Whoa…” You hear him mutter as he takes his place beside you.

Whales were swimming just a few hundred meters away from the ship and it’s one of the most wonderful things you’ve seen on this trip. With the ship nearing its end, you didn’t think you’d spot any before the cruise ends, but here you are now, watching them swim along with the ship, their tails splashing water everywhere. And it’s beautiful. It’s almost like they’re saying goodbye too. You know that’s not the case, but you can’t help but be a sentimental little shit right now.

You grin and lean onto the railings, resting your head into your arms and smiling serenely to yourself. You watch as they come up and down from the deep blue ocean, spouting out water, and singing songs you’ll never have the hope to understand. It’s a beautiful melody, their whale calls.

You feel Dave beside you, sliding an arm around your waist. You sigh, leaning into his touch and resting your head on his shoulder. He absentmindedly runs his hand slowly up and down your side and you enjoy the touch. Your boyfriend is so physically affectionate, it’s ridiculous. You wonder if it’s because it’s something he wasn’t shown very much of as a kid. That’s a depressing thought though so you push it out of your mind.

You simply watched the whales from a safe distance away, listening to their mellifluous tune.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

Day 58. Your last night on board the cruise ship.

You mostly spent the day like you usually would with Dave along with doing a few activities with your other friends. But the real show was at the end of the day.

The top deck was all decorated up just like it had been the first night you boarded the ship. With fairy lights and colourful streamers, pounding bass music, and bright neon lights that strobe around the top deck. Like always, you were the last one to the party because you honestly don’t feel like partying. But you’d feel worse if you missed this event.

And like the first time you made it at top deck, the first one to find you is Terezi. And she’s soaking wet again, but thank god she’s wearing a black graphic tee of Mickey Mouse flipping the bird. Vriska needs to keep her away from Hot Topic, seriously.

“Why the fuck are you wet again, Pyrope?” You groaned when she had tackled you into another hug. She hugs you tightly before letting go, cackling hysterically.

“Oh Karkat, Karkat, Karkat. You do know that that sounds so fucking wrong out of context, right?” She grins at you and it still creeps you out with how wide her smile can get. You roll your eyes.

“I thought you were more mature than that, TZ.” You tell her and she simply continues to smile at you.

“About time you showed up, Vantas.” She crosses her arms, still grinning. “C’mon, short stack. Everyone has been waiting for you at the lounge.” Then, she slinks her arm around your shoulders and starts steering you in the direction you think your friends are at. She weaves through the crowd until you spot a bunch of lounge chairs in a circle with all of your friends.

They all cheer when they spot you and Terezi approaching, and you roll your eyes at them. But really, it feels nice to have your friends be so happy to see you. To have somewhere where you truly belong.

Terezi cackles with the rest of your friends, while they all make fun of your lateness. You flip them off with both hands. The blind girl then leaves your side and bounds over to Vriska and flops onto the spiderbitch’s lap, making her drink spill a little. Serket scolds Pyrope while the blind girl continues to laugh like a maniac. Nepeta joined the two girls on one lounge chairs and Vriska was stuck with both girls on her lap, both of them giggling madly.

Jade, Dirk, and Equius are all together, probably chatting about something robotic, all while Jade is sitting on Aradia’s lap while both of them led two completely different conversations with different people. The prankster chats with his fellow prankster while Roxy makes side comments, seeming to already be tipsy. Dave joins in with her random side comments, much to the annoyance of Crocker and Egbert. Rose has a flustered looking Kanaya on her lap all while the blonde leads a casual conversation with Jake. Mirroring the two couple, Tavros was also just as flustered on Gamzee’s lap. Feferi, Aradia, Sollux and Eridan were in seats all next to each other, also chatting about something. Everyone seemed to be leading a lively conversation. Only there was one problem.

There aren’t any lounge chairs left to sit at. Dave had waved you over to sit with him and you had rolled your eyes exaggeratedly before going over to sit on the armrest of his lounge chair. He slips his shades down on his nose to raise a brow at you. He pulls on you so you fall across his lap, while you simply glared at him with your arms crossed. He just smirks at you, shrugging casually. “Your fault for coming in late and missing out on the first pick of seats.” John snickers at you, and you flip him off too. Roxy just coos and calls the two of you cute.

“What’s up with everyone sitting on each other’s laps anyway? Why not just get another fucking seat?” You complained, rolling your eyes again. You don’t bother fighting him on this seating arrangement, you know you’ll just lose.

Dave just shrugs again. “Gamzee got Tav to sit on his lap first and Terezi mimicked the two of them and then Rose followed, getting Kanaya to sit on her lap. Jade joined in on the fun and sat on Aradia who didn’t seem to mind and it was just kind of a domino effect. Others took the freed seats they left as more of our friends turned up.”

You gave him a deadpanned look and he just offers his drink to you, giving you a crooked side smile. “Drinks?”

Your group chats lively until at some point, Roxy proposes to play spin the bottle. Jane cut off her off alcohol when she figured the Lalonde was tipsy enough to be edging on being drunk. Your group agrees and you play it after getting an empty bottle from the bartender. Each of you took turns spinning the bottle on the glass table at the middle of the circle your group has made. It seems like everyone has drunk to some extent.

Jade went first and pecked Rose on the lips with consent from her girlfriend. Rose kissed Sollux on the cheek who looked supremely bored with the activity already. Until he had to kiss Eridan and the both of them stumbled over each other before doing it successfully all while your friends humiliatingly cheered them on. Eridan ended having to kiss Aradia, but the fucker changed things up and just kissed her hand like some fucking cheesy gentleman from the eighteen hundreds. Aradia spins the bottle next and ends up getting Kanaya, and on Kanaya’s turn to spin, she ends up getting Harley and the two have to kiss too. Rose seems way too fucking delighted about this.

The game goes on for a good hour or so and your friends share all kinds of kisses, on the cheek, on the forehead, on the hand, and for the bolder, more daring ones, actually pecking on the lips. It’s quite hilarious the strange pairs that your friends end up in with the randomness of the bottle, and it’s just nice to see how comfortable all of your friends are with each other. You’re all good friends with one another in one way or another.

Eventually, though, the first fireworks set off at the sky and your friends’ attention was completely swayed to it and the game was abandoned. You had all gotten up your seats to get a better view of the fireworks the staff was setting off at the bow of the boat, away from the crowd.

All sorts of glittering colour exploded in the sky, lighting up the night and filling the whole ship with sounds of explosions. It’s quite the sight since this is probably the first time you’ve seen fireworks this up close. It almost feels like it’ll come crashing down and actually hit up but in the end, it dissolves before it even reaches the crowd.

Your friends are all fixated on the display, each holding an expression of awe on their faces. You’re amazed at the sight yourself. Greens and reds, and golds explode in the sky in all sorts of shapes, some looking like falling waterfalls while others looked like a blooming flower. Some looked like shooting stars raining from the sky.

Dave taps your shoulder and you look over to him. He’s smiling softly at you with his shades sitting comfortably on the top of his head. He hands you something wordlessly, and you take it. When you look down at it, you realize it’s a crumpled piece of red paper. A crumpled piece of red paper in the shape of a _heart_ , the two parts clearly being taped together. Anna was on one side while the other had Elsa on it.

It’s from the beginning of the trip, from that shitty scavenger hunt for black paper pirate hats. You had given your piece to him when he insisted on having it instead of you throwing it away in the garbage bin after the scavenger hunt ended. You didn’t understand why he’d want it at the time, but you didn’t give it much of a thought. But seeing it now… A warm feeling spreads throughout your chest and you feel your eyes stinging a bit.

The start of it all. You remember and it makes your heart race. He’s had his eye on you even back then, and it’s still hard for you to believe that everything that has happened on the cruise actually happened. That maybe, you’re just dreaming it all and you’ll wake up soon and go back to your pathetic, loveless life.

But looking at him now, with that smile that’s just as bright as the fireworks above your heads, you know you can’t be dreaming. You don’t think you have the capacity to recreate that same wonderful warm crooked and sheepish side smile on his face in your head.

You hold the piece of paper tightly in your hands and use your other hand to pull him down to your level so you can kiss him. He easily complies, kissing you back and automatically slipping his arms around you to hold you close.

You can hear the explosions of the fireworks in the background, feel the vibrations of each one inside your chest as if you have your own fireworks set off inside your own being. But at that moment, nothing else seemed to matter. It’s just the two of you, trapped in this one moment the both of you can call yours forever. A moment in time that is solely yours and his to share.

This was a summer you’ll never forget. A summer you’ll remember. For a very, very long time.

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

The two of you share a bed one more time at your last night on the cruise ship. You fall asleep to the sight of his smiling face and the feel of his warmth against your own body. Soft, comfortable, and a gentle scent of apples on your nose.

You dream of him again, the mysterious person that’s been plaguing your dreams from the very beginning of the trip. You dream- no, - _remember_ of a warm sunny day under the shade of a tree. You _remember_ of feeling the presence of someone else beside you, the feeling of warmth as someone holds your hand. You _remember_ of looking out below from a small grassy hill with a smooth picnic blanket separating your from the fresh green grass. You _remember_ overlooking a town bustling with black and white and grey people, meandering about and around buildings in the shape of cylinders. You _remember_ of feeling warmth at seeing a building that seems to just have a giant book as the roof with the same cylinders holding it up. You _remember_ hearing someone calling your name and when you turned to look beside you, you wake up to the sight of his face, still, on your bed, the sun shining on a new day.

That’s when you realize it.

It’s been him in your dreams.

It’s always been _him_ in your dreams this _whole time_. And somehow, it just makes sense to you. _Of course it would be Dave in your dreams. Who else could it ever be?_


	41. Epilogue: Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 59 - Fort Lauderdale, California

You had woken up bright and early in the morning. The ship docks at around ten to eleven. It’s supposed to have made it back at seven, but you’re running a bit behind schedule. You’re honestly quite glad for this because that meant you get to have one last big breakfast with all of your friends on the ship.

The morning was pleasant with lots of raucous laughter in the breakfast lounge. Your friends were recounting times spent on board the ship and on the various excursions you all went on. You all fondly remember the hijinks and shenanigans that happened during this long two-month summer vacation at sea. And you think it’s safe to say that in some ways, some of you learned a few life lessons while on this trip of a lifetime.

You had already packed up all of your things the night before, you and Dave working together to help each other out. You made sure to double check, triple check, and quadruple check that you’ve got all of your belongings all packed up and ready to go. Dave had called you a mom when you fussed with him about his own things with the same attitude as you helped him pack up his stuff.

When you do finally dock on the port of Fort Lauderdale, California, the staff bids all of you passengers a warm goodbye along with a thank you for spending fifty-eight days with them. It honestly made you feel some type of dread when it finally completely sinks into you that this is the end. But like Dave constantly reminds you, it’s just the end of one chapter and you’re starting a new one. You’re really thankful you have him by your side.

Once you’re off the ship and you make it to the designated cars there to pick you up, you and your friends start stuffing all of your things in the back of the vans set to take you all home. Looking back at the great big white ship you spent two months on, a wave of sadness flows through you as you say a quiet goodbye to it inside your head. And as if sensing your distress, Dave holds your hand as he leads you back inside the van to finally go home.

It wasn’t a long drive to the airport and it wasn’t a long ride on the same private jet to get back to Houston, Texas. But you felt a weariness in your bones you don’t think any amount of sleep will be able to cure.

Once you touch down on the airport back at home, your friends started to splinter off into smaller groups to go in separate ways home. This was a harder goodbye to you and some of your friends teased you for being way too emotional when you know you’ll see them again in just a week at school. But they understand that things will be different once you all make it back to school.

Eight of your friends have their own cars waiting for them to take them home. Gamzee takes Tavros to drive him home, while Sollux goes with Eridan. Nepeta ride with Equius and Terezi and Vriska are together on their own way home. Kanaya goes with Rose and Roxy, while Jade and Jake offer Aradia a ride home. John goes home with Jane. While you’re being driven home with Dirk and Dave. But you didn’t intend to go straight home. You had asked the older Strider to drive you to St. Angelica’s Hospital to visit your bedridden father. Dave insisted in coming in with you to visit.

Dirk is more than glad to take you there and wait for the two of you in the parking lot while you go inside.

And much to your surprise, Hannah, the kind nurse who first broke the news to you about your father’s accident, was actually on duty at the information desk when you walk into the hospital. She happily takes the two of you to your dad’s room personally. Room four thirteen. He’s been moved from extensive care once the doctors agreed that he was good enough and didn’t need as much supervision as when he first got out of his surgery.

You stared at the door handle for a long while, only deciding to open after Dave gives your shoulder a light squeeze. A silent gesture of encouragement. You appreciate it.

When you walk in, you find your father on a typical white hospital bed with bandages wrapped around his head and an IV drip hooked up to his wrist. He didn’t look too bad considering he just went through a brain aneurysm and a serious surgery just a few days ago. You’re glad that he still looks like your same father.

He brightens up when he sees you at the entrance, smiling widely at you. You had texted him ahead of time to tell him that you’ll be visiting as soon as you made it back home from the cruise trip.

“Karkat!” He happily greets you before finally noticing the second person you had brought with you to visit. He looks at Dave to you before raising a brow, a smirk on his lips. You internally groan. He’s your dad. Of course, he’d act all smug and shit about you bringing your first boyfriend with you to visit him at the hospital.

“Dad, this is Dave. Dave, this is my dad.” You introduced both of them to each other as you approached, giving a warning look to your dad not to make this weird or to embarrass you even if the percentage of you avoiding that is highly unlikely. “And take off your fucking sunglasses, Dave. You look like a douchebag.”

He complies to your ‘request’ but gives you a long side glance before giving your dad his attention. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Vantas.” He smiles and offers his hand for a handshake.

Your father simply chuckles at seeing the way the two of you interact. “Dave Strider, right? Nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from Karkat in the past few days.”

You actually let yourself vocalize your groan this time. Dave looks supremely amused, eyeing you with a sly smirk. “Really?” Is all the response he gives.

Your father just chuckles again at your misery. “Yep. Doesn’t shut up about you anytime we’re able to text or call each other. Even before the two of you got together.”

You don’t like the grin growing on Dave’s face. “What’d he say?” He presses while you just slap both the palms of your hands on your face and slowly drag it downwards and groaning exaggeratingly loudly in the process.

“How, quote-unquote “infuriatingly gorgeous” you apparently are.”

You shoot your dad an icy glare. “Dad, I swear if you don’t shut up right fucking now, I’m going to take a metal bat and give you a second brain aneurysm.” Your father simply gives you an amused expression, raising a brow at you again. He’s used to your shitty empty threats. You basically talk to your dad just the way you’d talk to your friends, but with a little more respect. Sometimes.

“I’d like to see you try to actually lift a metal bat even an inch off the floor without falling over, Karkat.” He quips back at you and you groaned again, hiding your face into your hands. You can feel your face burning.

Dave laughs at you. “Man, why didn’t you tell me your dad was this awesome, Karkat?” You shoot him a death glare too from between your fingers. Your dad just smiles, seemingly enjoying this exchange of words too much for your liking. You swear to never have these two talk again or you’ll literally die of embarrassment within the next few minutes. You just know that your dad with pull out your album of baby photos and tell Dave your embarrassing childhood stories the first chance he gets.

Thankfully, your father’s assigned doctor comes in just in time to talk to you about details about your father’s situation and when he can be discharged. Doctor Walter takes you out of the room to discuss matters about your father. At least you don’t have to be there while your father continues to embarrass you.

His doctor explains to you that although the surgery went successfully, there is the usual after effects a brain aneurysm. After some tests, you’re informed that your father apparently has a few minor issues that will stick with him permanently. Things like lack of concentration, heightened fatigue, and a harder time remembering things. She tells you that they’re not severe, but it’s just something you needed to be aware of anyway. She also gives you a few reminders to keep your father’s health as well as it can be. Your father will apparently be discharged in just a few days time now that you’re back from your vacation.

Once she’s done briefing you over the little details, you enter the room again and find your boyfriend and your father actually getting along quite well and laughing. Over what, you have no idea, but you are glad that this wasn’t as awkward as you expected it to be. You’re pleasantly surprised though.

You stick around with your father for a couple more minutes before you have to go, explaining that you still have a lot of unpacking to do at home and that your driver is waiting for the two of you in the parking lot.

You and Dave bid him goodbye. You sign both of you out at the counter before walking out of the hospital and hopping back inside the car with Dirk. He asks you how it went, and you just smile faintly.

Dirk drives you back home and once you get there, Dave helps you with picking up your luggage and bringing it inside. “You sure you don’t need my help with unpacking too?”

You set your last duffel back on the bed and zip it open to take your things out. “I’ll be fine on my own around the house, Dave. It’s not the first time I had to spend the day being home alone anyway. I know how to do things around the house.”

He sighs but nods anyway. “Alright. Whatever you say, babe.”

“Babe?” You pause in taking out your neatly folded clothes to raise an eyebrow at him. He smiles sheepishly at you and shrugs his shoulders.

“Don’t like it?” You think about it for a moment before shrugging. You don’t actually mind the endearment. Although it’s usually portrayed to be cliche and in a bad way, coming from Dave, it feels natural and sweet.

“I don’t mind it, I guess. Just never munchkin. Or I’m taking a fucking hammer and bashing your precious camera to pieces.” He chuckles and hugs you from behind while you continue unpacking your things. You’d usually give him shit for hindering you with your work, but you don’t mind it this time. You like the physical intimacy at the moment. You lean into his touch instead.

“You know just how to get my heart racing, Kitkat.” You roll your eyes.

“Sure. It’s totally not because you’re nervous and you don’t think I’m not capable of actually doing something that evil to you just because you’ve earned the title as my boyfriend now.” You retort sarcastically, shifting just enough to flick him on the forehead.

He chuckles at you, catching your wrist before you can pull away and shifting you so you’re facing him. “I’ll see you next week at school?”

You give him a deadpanned look. “Of course I’ll see you again at school, dumbass.”

He grins at you. “I’ll be taking my leave then. But before I go-” He leans down and pecks you softly on the lips, quick and light. You flush because you honestly didn’t expect the sudden kiss.

“Alright, shit stain. But seriously, that’s what you consider a proper goodbye kiss? Pathetic.” You quip back, smirking slyly. He mirrors your expression, raising a brow above his shades.

“Then, please. Teach me the right way then, professor Vantas.” You grinned and coiled your arms around his shoulders.

“I’d be more than happy to.” You mutter before closing the distance between the two of you again, giving him a proper kiss this time.

After that, he finally leaves your house and you’re left all alone. You look back at your bags of stuff and sigh.

You’ve still got a lot of shit to do

 

≈≈≈ ~ ✧ ~ ≈≈≈

 

A week passes by like a snap of a finger. Your dad was finally discharged from the hospital just three days after you got back. You took over all of the chores, even though he’s already back and in good health. You did the laundry, you cleaned the house, and you cooked, making sure to keep your father out of the kitchen and in his room or the living room, resting. He makes a comparison of you and your mom when you wouldn’t stop fussing over him and insisting on doing everything.

You kept in contact with all of your friends and even went on a back to school shopping spree with John and Jade. And that’s the story of how you ended up getting a furry purple binder on the insistence of Jade. Said she’d pay you a hundred bucks if you can use the thing for the whole first month of school. Dave teases you incessantly about it when he heard it from John. You almost slugged Harley and Egbert with the binder.

You didn’t get to see Dave at all during that whole week. Both of you were busy with your own things, mostly you taking care of your father even if he insists that he was okay. You hung out with some of your other friends when your dad forces you out of the house to go socialize and stop being a total nanny on him.

But the week went by quickly so didn’t really notice it much.

Until you’re finally getting up on Monday and preparing yourself for the first day of school. For the last first day you’ll ever have as a high school student. Thinking about it hard didn’t make you feel good so you busied yourself with calling your boyfriend early in the morning to make sure he got up and doesn’t end up late again. As he has been for the past three years he’s been going to school with you.

It’s still funny to you how a year ago around this same time, you wouldn’t have cared what happened to the douchebag. But now he’s _you’re_ douchebag and you have to at least make an effort on getting him to be more responsible.

Shit, you’re almost as bad as Kanaya when it comes to being the mom of your friend group.

Once you’ve gotten him up, you got yourself ready for school and your dad drives you to school. And soon enough, you’re at the front of the school, greeting your friends and looking over the class schedules to see who’s in who’s class. Much to your delight, Dave’s in your homeroom (you make sure not to make it that obvious though). Like he has been for the past three years. Everything feels so different now from how it was last year.

When you were finally let into school, you and your friends checked out your classes before finding everyone in your friend group and just hanging out before the start of your first class.

And even though you did call him to wake him up and get to school in time, the fucker doesn’t arrive until the bell finally rung and you and all your friends rushed off for homeroom. You stuck your tongue out at him when he realizes that most of the seats in the class were already filled and there was none open anywhere near your desk. Kanaya sat to your right, Nepeta to your left, Sollux directly behind you and Eridan in front of you with Terezi right beside him and in front of Nepeta. He ends up settling for behind Captor, flipping you off on his way there.

Fucker immediately got called out by Mrs. Flores for inappropriate behaviour not even five minutes into the class. You can’t help but smile and laugh at how typical the two of your behaviours are around each other, but having totally different meanings than it did a year ago. Before, it was a purposeful way to annoy each other, but now, it was more of an endearment and show of affection.

Everything… Felt different from how it was just a year ago. It’s strange how two months on a cruise ship seemingly changed everything for you. You’ve changed. And some of your friends have as well along with the relationships you each had with one another.

Kanaya and Rose were still together, but they seemed closer to each other than ever before. You make sure to stick around Gamzee again and be better friends with him than you have been for the past three years. Vriska was the same abrasive bitch she usually is, but she seems to listen much better to John now than she used to when they first got together. Maybe they could actually work this time around. Tavros seemed a lot more confident than he ever was after you all agreed that he pulled probably the best prank out of all of you during that prank wars week. Nepeta is still cheerful, but something changed between the two of you. She’s much more comfortable talking to you when she used to be mostly shy around you. Like something has been lifted between the two of you that is finally allowing both of you to be proper friends to each other. Which was amazing because you just recently learned that she liked talking about relationships as much as you did. The two of you have an ongoing bet about your friends’ relationships and who’s going to survive or not. Terezi was still her same confident self, but she seems much more happier and chipper than her already enthusiastic self. She also uses a lot of cat puns lately. Equius and Sollux have teamed up with Harley, who started calling them ‘science bros’ since literally nobody else can understand what she’s talking about when it comes to machinery or programming aside from Zahhak and Captor. She and Equius build the systems while Captor is in charge of programming. Eridan and Sollux are usually off somewhere together while Aradia and Feferi seem to be on better terms now. At least they’re talking to each other instead of the awkward silences when it’s just the two of them with neither knowing what to really say. And John is John. But he feels more mature, somehow. He and Vriska really seem to have a surprisingly different dynamic than you expected the second time around.

Maybe it has something to do with all of you finally growing up. Realizing just how close all of you really are to being independent and on your own as adults.

You and Dave… The two of you are going well. Steady. Everything is going great in your life. You’ve got amazing, life long friends, a loving partner in crime, and your future is looking bright ahead of you.

You’re happy with your life and you can’t wait for the things to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. At the very end of the fic. The real ending to everything I've been working on for the past few months. Thank you to each and everyone one of you that stayed since chapter one all the way to now. Thank you to those that came along the journey at whatever point in the fic and to those that spent hours of their time binge reading my shit. I really appreciate each and every one of you. Your comments and kudos have really inspired me to keep writing and finish this big undertaking and I'm proud of what I have accomplished and what I was able to give you guys.
> 
> I know it's not perfect, there's still errors that escaped me and I wasn't able to change or there are things with the pacing, the characters, the dialogue, or whatever. But still, I'm proud of what I was able to do and contribute to this lovely community and ship that means so much to me. I'm happy to have brought innumerable amounts of joy and happiness to my readers, just like other creators and writers like me have done with their own fics. It makes me happy to know that I can elicit the kind of emotions other fics have done to me and that you guys liked it so much as to consider rereading my trash a second time. Thank you for all the time you have spent with me and this fic and for all the encouraging words you have sent my way. I truly can't express my gratitude towards ya'll. 
> 
> It's been a wonderful ride on board Skaia Cruise Lines with all of you and I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did writing this. I'll see you guys in whatever next project I may start up (and hopefully finish as well) and I hope I was able to put a smile on your face whenever I updated. Once again, thank you.
> 
> But for now. Good-bye to ya'll lovely ass people. And goodbye to the STR series. Adios, fuckasses :) <3


	42. The Best Snippets of Two Idiots' Chat History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I was looking through pinterest of text quotes and I got inspired and ended up putting a collection of texts that reminded me a lot of davekat xD so here ya go nerds a sweet little extra xD I might add side stories who knows?

 

Stridouche ♡  
  
im outside  
  
 I DIDN'T INVITE YOU AROUND.  
  
... so anyway im outside  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i mean yeah  
  
i hate myself and i lowkey wanna die but im still prettier so ??  
  
whos the real winner here  
  
me  


 OH MY FUCKING GOD.

 

Stridouche ♡  
  
im not a fuckboy  
  
 SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING A FUCKBOY WOULD SAY.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
being attractive is so inconvenient how am i supposed to do anything if im constantly surrounded by fangirls  
  
 OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND YOUR PERSONALITY WITH DRIVE THEM AWAY.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
are lobsters mermaids to scorpions  
  
 DAVE, IT'S FOUR IN THE FUCKING MORNING.  
  
wait arent you supposed to be asleep  
  
I'M SUPPOSED TO BE A LOT OF THINGS BUT I LIVE TO DISAPPOINT.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 I'M SO MAD.  
  
 FUCK EVERYONE.  
  
how about you just fuck me instead  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i love you  
  
 OH NO.  
  
what  
  
 I THINK I'VE DEVELOPED EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO A HUMAN BEING AGAIN.  
  
hey that was a pretty gay thing to say im mctouched  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
hey  
  
i just wanted to let u know  
  
that im beautiful  
  
thank u and goodnight  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 WTF YOU TAKE LIKE TEN YEARS TO REPLY.  
  
 DO YOU TEXT PEOPLE  
AND THEN THROW YOUR PHONE  
  
 ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN??  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 MY HANDS ARE COLD.  
  
put them in my pants  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 GOD I DO NOT LIKE A SINGLE THING ABOUT YOU.  
tell me more  
  
 THIS ISN'T SEXTING.  
  
its better than sexting tbh  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i will do everything to make you happy  
  
and turn you on from time to time  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 HAVE A NICE NIGHT, ASSHOLE.  
  
you too princess  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
at first i was like  
  
GET DICK  
  
now im like  
  
GET HIS HEART  
  
AND CHERISH HIM  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
wanna bang  
  
oops i mean hang  
  
no i dont  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 SO YOU THINK I HAVE I NICE ASS?  
  
yes  
  
 THANKS.  
  
no problemo bro  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
*finger guns* *but like with emotional attachment and lots of love*  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
whats your biggest fear  
  
 BEING FORGOTTEN.  
  
damn thats deep  
  
i was just gonna say the kool aid man but i feel kinda stupid about it now  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
im going to be honest i feel like you dont like me  
  
 I'VE TOLD YOU MULTIPLE TIMES BEFORE THAT I DON'T.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 I HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT YOU. HALF OF THE TIME I WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH YOU, THE OTHER HALF I WANT TO KILL YOU.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
youre a mess you cant survive on coffee alone  
  
 WATCH ME.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
who says anything i do is healthy  
  
 SHUT UP.  
  
 I'M TRYING TO TAKE CARE OF YOU.  
  
 YOU SHIT.  
  
 JUST LISTEN TO ME.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 SEE YOU IN HELL.  
  
uh are you askin me on a date? i accept  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i think youre perfect  
  
youre perfect to me  
  
 GAY.  
  
you bet your biscuits i am  
  
 I THINK THAT'S THE GEEKIEST MOST STUPID THING IVE HEARD ANYBODY SAY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.  
  
 AND IT WAS FUCKING CUTE.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 OH MY GOD WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!  
  
everything  
  
except the way i dress  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 CAN YOU LIKE FUCK THE SAD OUT OF ME.  
how bout you tell me whats bothering you instead  
  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
where you from cutie  
  
 HELL.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 I'VE EATEN ALMOST AN ENTIRE CAKE WITHIN 24 HOURS.  
  
 WHY ARE YOU DATING ME.  
  
 I'M A MESS.  
  
because you almost ate an entire cake within 24 hours  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 WELL FUCK.  
  
we'll fuck*  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
you love me right  
  
 YEAH. WHY?  
  
what if i did something bad  
  
i mean like really bad  
  
 WHAT DID YOU DO?  
  
are you SURE youd still love me tho  
  
 WHAT  
  
 DID  
  
 YOU  
  
 DO  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
this is homophobia  
  
 WE'RE BOTH GAY??  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 I'M GONNA TAKE A SHOWER.  
  
 SEE YA.  
  
okay babe  
  
have fun  
  
and dont touch yourself inappropriately thats my job  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
send nudes  
  
memes*  
  
no  
  
wait  
  
both  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
teasing you is what im best at sorry babe  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
im not entertaining  
  
 YOUR STUPIDITY IS GREATLY ENTERTAINING TO ME.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 YOU'RE ANNOYING.  
  
but you love me  
  
DOESN'T MAKE YOU LESS ANNOYING.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 i like you so much that when i see you i get a boner  
  
not like a penis boner but a boner in my heart  
  
a heart boner  
  
a heart on  
  
an affection erection  
  
 PLEASE STOP.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i know youre mad at me but im pretty sure your dick isnt so i should still be able to come over  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
 DAVE, I NEED MOTIVATION NOT KILL ANYONE TODAY.  
  
i cant fuck you if youre in prison  
  
 THANKS.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
can i have my sweater back  
  
 CAN I HAVE MY VIRGINITY BACK?  
  
fair  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
what are you thinkin about  
  
 YOU.  
  
 SOMETIMES NAKED.  
  
 SOMETIMES NOT.  
  
 DEPENDS.  


 

Stridouche ♡  
  
i love you  
  
 I LOVE YOU TOO.

 

  
Smiling, you close your phone, set it aside, and go to sleep.


End file.
